SCHTJYLER  COLFAX  AMD    HIG  MOTHER,  PAINTED  IN  1326 


LIFE 


OF 


SCHUYLER    COLFAX 


O.   J?  HOLLISTER. 


"  We  pass :  the  path  that  each  man  trod 
Is  dim,  or  will  be  dim,  with  weeds: 
What  fame  is  left  for  human  deeds 
In  endless  age?     It  rests  with  God." 

In  Memoriam. 


FUNK    &   WAGNALLS. 

NEW  YORK:  I886.  LONDON: 

10  AND  12  DEY  STREET.  44  FLEET  STREET. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1886,  by 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


PREFACE. 


ABOUT  sixty  years  ago  a  boy  was  born  in  the  city  of 
New  York  who  at  an  early  age  became  a  resident  of  North- 
ern Indiana.  Without  means,  without  influential  friends, 
with  but  a  common  school  education,  this  boy  made  him- 
self a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  great  formative  period  of 
the  United  States.  His  career  from  obscurity  to  positions 
of  the  highest  distinction  and  the  widest  influence,  involv- 
ing a  sketch  of  the  times  in  which  his  lot  was  cast  and  the 
events  with  which  his  name  must  forever  be  associated,  is 
the  subject  of  this  memoir.  In  its  preparation  the  author 
has  had  access  to  the  literary  effects  of  the  dead  statesman, 
as  well  as  to  all  ordinary  sources  of  information.  He  has 
found  the  story  more  fascinating  than  a  romance,  and 
trusts  that  his  countrymen  will  find  equal  pleasure  and 
profit  in  its  perusal. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   I. 

CHILDHOOD     AND    YOUTH. 
1823-1844. 

Schuyler  Colfax  and  South  Bend. — His  Ancestry  and  Birth. — At  School. 
— Mrs.  Colfax  Becomes  Mrs.  Matthews. — Young  Schuyler's  Home 
Surroundings. — Political  Precocity. — The  Family  Go  West. — New 
Carlisle  and  Terre  Coupee,  Ind. — His  Diary  and  Journals. — A  Student- 
at-Law  and  a  Student-at-Work. — Newspaper  Correspondent. — They 
Remove  to  South  Bend.— Deputy- Auditor. — "The  Gentleman  from 
Jasper." — Teetotaler  and  Temperance  Worker. — State  Senate  Reporter. 
— Editor  Incog.— Delegate  to  Conventions. — In  Demand  as  a  Political 
Speaker.  —  "The  Potato  Club."  —  Marries  and  Brings  Home  His 
Bridge n— 39 


CHAPTER  II. 

EDITOR. 
1844-1855. 

Founds  the  St.  Joseph  Valley  Register. — Secretary  of  the  Chicago  Harbor 
and  River  Convention. — Delegate  to  the  Whig  National  Convention  of 
1848. — The  Slavery  Question  from  the  Time  of  the  Confederation. — 
Youngest  Grand  Representative  of  the  Odd  Fellows. — Makes  His  Mark 
in  the  State  Constitutional  Convention  of  1850. — Joint  Canvass  with 
Dr.  Fitch  for  Congress. — Carries  the  Rebekah  Degree  in  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  the  United  States. — Delegate-at-Large  to  the  Whig  National 
Convention  of  1852.— Appeals  to  the  People  from  the  Repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise.— Active  in  Forming  the  Republican  Party. — 
Elected  to  Congress  over  Dr.  Eddy. — Delegate  to  the  National  Know- 
Nothing  Council  of  1855.— But  never  a  Know-Nothing  .  .  .  40-82 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   III. 

THIRTY-FOURTH     CONGRESS. 
1855-1857. 

Affairs  in  Kansas. — Two  Months'  Balloting  for  Speaker. — Saves  the 
Battle  at  Critical  Moments. — Appointed  on  the  Elections  Committee. — 
What  the  House  Special  Committee  Found  in  Kansas. — Gives  Notice 
of  Proviso  to  the  Army  Bill. — Great  Speech  against  the  Enforcement 
of  the  "  Bogus  Laws." — A  Million  Copies  Circulated. — In  the  Early 
Congressional  Republican  Caucuses. — Correspondence  with  Public 
Meetings. — Sumner  Assaulted. — Army  Bill  Lost  between  the  Two 
Houses. — Extra  Session,  the  House  Beaten. — Reception  at  Home. — 
Canvass  for  Re-election,  Election  Day  at  South  Bend. — Short  Session, 
the  House  and  the  Administration. — Free  Sugar. — A  Congressional 
Panic 83-111 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THIRTY-FIFTH     CONGRESS. 
1857-1859. 

Colfax  and  Wheeler. — Editorial  Comments  on  Current  Events. — The 
Free-State  Party  in  Kansas  Carry  the  Legislature. — The  Lecompton 
Constitution.— Congress  Organized  by  the  Administration.— On  the 
Indian  Affairs  Committee. — Attitude  and  Record. — Attempt  to  Admit 

,  Kansas  under  an  Alien  Constitution. — Defection  of  Douglas. — Confi- 
dential Conferences  with  Douglas. — Douglas  and  Buchanan  Differ  but 
Slightly.— Colfax  Speaks  against  the  Lecompton  Iniquity.— Renomi- 
nated,  His  Opponent  Avoids  a  Joint  Canvass.— "  A  Proud  Personal 
Triumph."— Votes  for  the  Admission  of  Oregon.— Tendency  of  the 
Times,  Editorial  Correspondence.— Against  Land-Grabbing,  especially 
to  Extend .  Slavery.  —  The  Slave  Power  Crumbles  in  this  Con- 
Sress 112-140 

CHAPTER   V. 

THIRTY-SIXTH     CONGRESS. 

1859-1861. 

Politics-  in  1859.— Edward  Bates  for  President.— Success  in  1860  a  Duty.— 
John  Brown  at  Harper's  Ferry.— Eight  Weeks'  Balloting  for  Speaker- 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Post-Offices  and  Post-Roads. — Im- 
provements in  the  Service.— Daily  Overland  Mail.— His  Way  in  the 
House.— Presides  in  a  Night  Session,  Vote  of  Thanks.— Re-elected,  a 
Walk-Over.— Secession.— Compromise  Winter.— Southern  Delegations 


CONTENTS.  7 

Withdraw  from  Congress. — First  Practical  Counter-move. — "Votes 
Better  than  Speeches." — Compromise  Impossible. — Seizure  of  Govern- 
ment Property  by  the  Seceded  States. — Critical  Times  in  Washington. — 
Strife  for  Office 141-173 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THIRTY-SEVENTH     CONGRESS. 
1861-1863. 

Lincoln  Inaugurated. — Colfax  Generally  Commended  for  Postmaster- 
General. — Civil  War,  Special  Session. — Chairman  of  Committee  on 
Post-Offices  and  Post-Roads. —  His  Standing  in  this  Congress. — Defence 
of  Fremont. — Favors  Confiscation  Act. — Reforms  in  the  Postal  Service. 
— War  in  Earnest. — Renominated,  Recruiting,  Canvass  against  Turpie. 
— Barely  Elected,  Congratulations. — Discouragement  in  the  Country. — 
Favors  the  Admission  of  West  Virginia. — Fire  in  the  Rear. — Answer 
of  Congress. — Codification  of  the  Postal  Laws 174-207 

CHAPTER    VII. 

THIRTY-EIGHTH     CONGRESS. 
1863-1865. 

Death  of  Mrs.  Colfax. — Elected  Speaker  by  the  Unanimous  Vote  of  His 
Party. — Qualifications  and  Power  of  the  Speaker. — Complimentary 
Press  Banquet,  Eulogies. — Moves  the  Expulsion  of  Long. — The  Debate. 
— Presentation  of  Silver  Service,  the  "  Soldiers'  Friend." — Renomi- 
nated in  Spite  of  His  Wishes. — Importance  of  the  Election. — "Stand 
by  the  Government." — His  Canvass 208-242 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

THIRTY-EIGHTH     CONGRESS     (continued}. 
1863-1865. 

Congress  Proposes  Constitutional  Amendment  Abolishing  Slavery. — 
Collapse  of  the  Rebellion. — Assassination  of  Lincoln. — Colfax  as 
Speaker. — Disposes  of  his  Interest  in  the  Register. — Visits  Lincoln  and 
Receives  his  Last  Good-By. — His  Tribute  to  Lincoln. — Public  Interest 
in  his  Overland  Journey. — His  Story  of  the  Trip. — His  Reception, 
Bearing,  Speeches,  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  Pen-Picture,  by  Sam 
Bowles. — Anxiety  in  the  Country  with  Respect  to  President  Johnson's 
Course. —  "Across  the  Continent"  Lecture. — The  Pacific  Rail- 
road    243-268 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THIRTY-NINTH    CONGRESS. 
1865-1867. 

Serenade  Speech  at  Washington.— Points  out  the  True  Reconstruction 
Policy. — Re-elected  Speaker. — Lecturing.  —Declines  the  Editorship  of 
the  New  York  Tribune.— Last  Meeting  of  the  United  States  Christian 
Commission.— Antagonism  between  Congress  and  the  President- 
Correspondence  and  Serenade  Speeches.— His  Policy.— Fourteenth 
Amendment  Proposed  by  Congress.— Parliamentary  Ruling,  Rousseau 
and  Grinnell.— Reception  at  Home. — Canvass. — Colfax  and  the  Irish. — 
Attitude  toward  the  Presidency.— Estimates  of  the  Speaker  .  269-302 

CHAPTER  X. 

FORTIETH     CONGRESS. 

1867-1869. 

Re-elected  Speaker,  Inaugural. — Congress  Adjourns  to  July. — Lecturing, 
Honors,  Receptions.— Congress  Construes  the  Reconstruction  Acts, 
Adjourns  to  November. — Serenade  Speech. — The  Speaker  Proposed  in 
Many  Quarters  for  President. — The  Fall  Canvass  and  Election. — John- 
son's Machinations  to  Defeat  Congressional  Reconstruction. — The 
President  Impeached,  Tried,  Acquitted. — The  Rebel  States  Acquiesce 
in  the  Law. — Colfax  Solicited  to  Stand  for  Governor  of  Indiana, 
Declines. — Proposed  for  Vice-President. — Nominated  with  Grant, 
Congratulations,  Comments. — Reception  at  Home. — A  Summer  Idyl. — 
Elected  Vice-President.— Marries  Miss  Wade,  Niece  of  Senator  Wade, 
of  Ohio. — Congratulations,  Receptions,  Banquets,  Presents. — Counting 
the  Electoral  Vote. — Takes  Final  Leave  of  the  House  .  .  .  303-336 

CHAPTER   XI. 

FORTY-FIRST     CONGRESS. 

1869-1871. 

Declines  to  be  General  Solicitor  for  Office,  Alienations. — Visiting,  East 
and  West,  a  Second  Pacific  Tour,  Speech  at  Salt  Lake  City.— An  Old 
Friend  in  Trouble.— "The  Advocate  of  all  Good  Causes."— All  Men 
His  Readers.— Canvasses  Indiana. — His  Retirement  Announced. — 
Response. — Christmas-tide. — Attack  of  Vertigo  in  the  Senate,  Solicitude 
of  the  Country. — A  Breath  of  Prairie  and  Pine  Forest. — Asked  to  Re- 
sign the  Vice-Presidency  and  Become  Secretary  of  State. — His  most 
Intimate  Friends  Drifting  into  Opposition  to  Grant. — Greeley's  and 
Bowles's  Candidate. — An  Embarrassing  Position  for  a  Less  Loyal  Man. 
— Guarding  against  Misunderstanding  with  the  President  .  .  337-364 


CONTENTS.  9 

CHAPTER   XII. 

FORTY-SECOND     CONGRESS. 
1871-1873. 

The  Party  Apparently  Negatives  His  Retirement. — He  Refuses  to  be  a 
Candidate  for  the  Presidency  against  Grant. — The  Convention,  Grant's 
Friends  Nominate  Henry  Wilson. — Gives  in  His  Adhesion  to  the 
Ticket. — But  Declines  to  Actively  Engage  in  the  Canvass. — Forced  to, 
however,  to  Save  the  Day. — Death  of  His  Mother. — Replies  to  the 
Credit  Mobilier  Campaign  Slanders. — Visits  the  Indiana  Legislature. — 
Death  of  Horace  Greeley. — Invited  to  Take  Greeley's  Place  on  the 
Tribune.—  The  Negotiation,  Why  it  Failed 365-391 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS  (continued). 

Credit  Mobilier. 

1871-1873. 

The  Charges  of  the  Campaign  in  the  House. — Excitement  Becomes 
Delirium. — The  Congressional  Investigation  a  National  Calamity. — 
The  Appeal  "  From  Philip  Drunk  to  Philip  Sober." — Peculiarities  of 
the  Investigation. — The  Charge  Shifted  from  Corruption  to  Falsehood. 
— Colfax  Contradicted  by  Ames. — What  was  Elicited  Pro  and  Con. — 
The  Twelve-Hundred-Dollar  Dividend  Check. — Ames's  Diaries. — 
Colfax's  Bank  Account. — Suspicious  Deposit  Explained. — Dillon  Paid 
the  Check  to  Ames. — Drew  Saw  it  Paid. — Ames  Acknowledges  it  to 
General  Fisk. — Ames's  Memory  at  Fault. — Colfax's  Feelings  during  the 
Trial. — Reception  in  Philadelphia.— Robbed,  Property  Recovered.— 
Passes  the  Gavel  of  the  Senate  to  his  Successor. — And  Retires  from 
Public  Life 392-419 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

CREDIT   MOBILIER    (continued). 

1873. 

Return  to  South  Bend. — Great  Ovation. — "  Affectionately  Yours,  U.  S. 
Grant." — Verdict  of  the  Leading  Democratic  Journal  of  the  West. — 
Letters  Received. — Muster  of  His  Motley  Assailants. — His  Defences 
Thrown  Down  by  His  South  Bend  Speech  of  1872. — But  without  Intent. 
— His  Explanation. — Guilty  of  All,  or  Innocent  of  All. — Sensitiveness 
to  a  Stain  on  His  Honor.— His  Struggle  that  of  a  Hero. — Letter  to  His 
Wife  and  Son,  Carried  Nine  Years. — Reward  for  Twenty  Years  Given 
to  the  Service  of  His  Country. — Press  Comments 420-441 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XV. 

OUT    OF    OFFICE. 
1873-1885. 

Busier  than  Ever.— Overrun  with  Calls  for  Speaking.— A  Series  of  Popular 
Ovations.— Reception  in  Minnesota,  in  the  West,  in  New  York,  in  New 
England.— A  Unanimous  Election  to  Congress  Tendered,  and  Declined. 
The  People's  Answer  to  His  Defamers.— Reception  in  Colorado. — 
Tribute  to  Lincoln  at  the  Capital  of  Illinois.— Adopts  Lecturing  as  a 
Profession.— Reception  in  Canada.— Tribute  to  Henry  Wilson.— Why 
He  did  not  Write  a  Book.— His  Twelve  Years'  Work.— Appointments 
He  did  not  Live  to  Fill 442-4^4 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

OUT   OF   OFFICE   (continued). 
1873-1885. 

Declines  to  Run  for  Congress  in  1876. — Reception  of  the  Grand  Lodge 
of  the  United  States  at  Indianapolis. — Contested  Presidential  Election. 
— The  White  Men  of  the  North  Accept  the  Badge  of  Inferiority. — 
Demands  the  Remonetization  of  Silver. — Always  Against  Polygamy. — 
Prison  Labor. — Six  Weeks'  Canvass  in  1880. — Indiana  Wins  the  Presi- 
dential Battle.— Declines  to  Run  for  United  States  Senator. — Murder 
of  President  Garfield. — Reception  by  the  Two  Houses  of  the  Indiana 
Legislature. — Declines  to  Run  for  Congress  in  1882. — Causes  of  the 
Republican  Reverses. — Tribute  to  Senator  Morton. — Universal  Censor. 
— In  the  Far  North-west. —  In  Colorado,  Family  Reunion. —  Last 
Political  Speech. — On  Blame's  Defeat.— In  New  York  .  .  .465-493 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

IN     MEMORIAM. 
1885. 

Schuyler  Coif  ax  Dies  Suddenly  at  Mankato,  Minn.— The  Saddest  Day 
Mankato  had  ever  Seen. — How  the  Announcement  was  Received  by 
the  Country.— The  Funeral  Train  from  Mankato  to  South  Bend. — 
Obsequies. — Tributes  of  His  Brethren  of  the  Fraternity  of  Odd  Fellows. 
—Press  Notices.— Personal  Tributes.—"  The  True  Victor  on  the  Battle- 
field of  Life  " 494-526 


SCHUYLER    COLFAX, 


CHAPTER   I. 

CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH. 

1823-1844. 

SCHUYLER  COLFAX  AND  SOUTH  BEND. — His  ANCESTRY  AND  BIRTH. — 
AT  SCHOOL. — MRS.  COLFAX  BECOMES  MRS.  MATTHEWS. — YOUNG 
SCHUYLER'S  HOME  SURROUNDINGS.  —  POLITICAL  PRECOCITY. — THE 
FAMILY  Go  WEST. — NEW  CARLISLE  AND  TERRE  COUPEE,  IND. — His 
DIARY  AND  JOURNALS. — A  STUDENT- AT-LAW  AND  A  STUDENT-AT- 
WORK.  —  NEWSPAPER  CORRESPONDENT. — THEY  REMOVE  TO  SOUTH 
BEND  — DEPUTY-AUDITOR. — "THE  GENTLEMAN  FROM  JASPER." — TEE- 
TOTALER AND  TEMPERANCE  WORKER. — STATE  SENATE  REPORTER. — 
EDITOR  INCOG. — DELEGATE  TO  CONVENTIONS. — IN  DEMAND  AS  A 
POLITICAL  SPEAKER. — "  THE  POTATO  CLUB." — MARRIES  AND  BRINGS 
HOME  His  BRIDE. 

FOR  many  years  South  Bend  has  suggested  Schuyler 
Colfax,  and  Schuyler  Colfax  has  suggested  South  Bend. 
A  letter  addressed  simply  "  Schulyer  Colfax,"  and  mailed 
at  any  post-office  in  the  United  States,  would  almost  cer- 
tainly have  gone  to  him  direct.  More  inseparable  the 
man  and  the  place  than  Washington  and  Mt.  Vernon  or 
Jackson  and  the  Hermitage.  These  were  merely  home- 
steads ;  but  South  Bend,  in  its  relations  to  Schuyler  Colfax, 
represents  substantially  a  single  family,  of  which  he  was  a 
member  and  the  consummate  flower.  It  is  a  beautiful  and 
thriving  town  on  the  St.  Joseph  River  in  Northern  Indiana. 
Rising  in  Eastern  Michigan,  the  river  roughly  describes 
a  crescent,  with  its  horns  pointing  northward,  in  its  course 


12  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

of  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  Lake  Michigan.  It  is  a 
fine  stream,  with  a  rapid  current,  but  no  "  rapids,"  wind- 
ing between  wooded  banks  half  a  hundred  feet  below  the 
general  level  of  the  country-side.  Dams  obstruct  it  at 
Niles,  South  Bend,  Mishawaka,  and  above.  Below  the 
dam  at  South  Bend,  where  nut  trees,  wild  fruit  trees, 
shrubs,  and  vines  once  grew  in  dense  thicket,  there  are  now 
a  score  of  mills  and  factories.  In  early  times  small  boats 
ran  up  the  stream  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles,  but 
the  river  has  long  since  been  superseded  as  a  highway  by 
the  railroads,  two  of  the  trunk-roads  passing  through  the 
streets,  and  cross-roads  connecting  with  twenty  others. 
The  country  is  almost  level,  there  is  little  or  no  rock  in 
place,  forest  and  fine  farms  alternate,  giving  the  landscape 
a  park-like  appearance. 

The  town  lies  on  both  sides  of  the  river  at  its  great 
south  bend — hence  the  name — but  is  mainly  on  the  west 
side.  The  mills  are  on  the  first  "bottom  ;"  five  or  six 
blocks  on  the  second  answer  the  present  requirements  of 
business  ;  the  residences  spread  out  thence  a  mile  or  so 
toward  and  upon  a  third  terrace.  The  dwellings  are  in 
ample  grounds,  and  are  embowered  in  foliage  in  the  sum- 
mer. The  people  are  plain  and  hospitable,  simple  in  their 
manners  and  mode  of  life.  The  rich  have  risen  to  afflu- 
ence by  their  own  business  sagacity,  and  there  is  no  osten- 
tation. The  absence  of  display  and  pretence,  and  the  re- 
pose in  the  social  life  of  the  place,  give  it  a  charm  that  will 
be  sought  in  vain  in  most  of  our  towns  of  its  size  and  im- 
portance. The  inhabitants  number  more  thousands  now 
than  they  did  hundreds  when  the  place  first  became  the 
home  of  Schuyler  Colfax.  About  half  of  them  live  by 
manufacturing.  It  is  thus  a  modern  town  ;  the  relations 
of  labor  and  capital,  transportation,  tariff,  the  assimilation 
of  foreigners,  are  the  studies  which  it  suggests  to  the 
thoughtful  mind.  Not  a  place  for  dreamers  but  for  work- 
ers, the  town  and  the  man  were  congenial.  The  house  in 
which  he  lived  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life  is  a  square 
frame  building  of  two  stories,  standing  in  a  roomy  lot, 
lawn  set  with  forest  trees  in  front,  garden  and  fruit  trees 


CHILDHOOD  AND   YOUTH.  13 

in  the  rear.  Mr.  Colfax  rejected  sundry  good  business 
offers  in  the  course  of  his  life,  because  they  would  take  him 
away  from  South  Bend,  whose  people  he  loved,  and  who 
returned  his  affection. 

He  was  born  in  New  York  City,  at  No.  86  North  Moore 
Street.  The  house,  a  two-story  brick,  with  roof  sloping 
toward  the  street  and  with  dormer  windows,  is  still  stand- 
ing, a  mile  or  so  north  of  the  Battery,  and  one  number  east 
of  Washington  Street.  It  will  soon  have  to  give  way  to  busi- 
ness houses.1  Sixty  years  ago  it  was  in  the  residence  quarter 
of  the  better  classes,  although  it  was  even  then  passing  into 
the  boarding-house  stage,  through  which  the  residences  of 
to-day  on  Manhattan  Island  are  surrendered  to  business 
to-morrow.  There  was  but  little  business  above  Canal 
Street  at  that  time.  The  metropolis  had  barely  a  quarter 
of  a  million  inhabitants.  There  were  no  stages  on  Broad- 
way, and  its  perennial  currents  of  humanity  were  just  be- 
ginning to  flow  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Paul's.  Where,  now, 
pulsates  the  very  heart  of  the  business  life  of  the  great  city, 
little  Schuyler  Colfax  and  his  cousins  used  to  watch  about 
the  door  of  Mrs.  Stryker's  boarding-house,  near  one 
o'clock,  "  for  [the  image  of]  St.  Paul  to  come  down  and 
get  his  dinner."  The  cross-streets  below  Canal  were  filling 
up  with  the  Fifth  Avenue  people  of  the  day  when  young 
Colfax  left  the  city,  with  his  household  gods,  for  the  West. 
There  were  no  Times,  Tribune,  Herald,  or  World.  Horace 
Greeley  was  just  founding  the  New  Yorker. 

Schuyler  Colfax  came  of  the  best  class  of  emigrants  to 
the  New  World,  those  who  colonized  the  shores  of  New 
York  Bay,  of  the  Hudson,  and  the  Connecticut,  in  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  He  could  trace  his 
lineage  to  Colfax,  Van  Schuyler,  Le  Maistre,  and  Strycker, 
men  of  affairs  in  their  own  lands,  some  of  them  offshoots 
of  noble  families,  long  eminent  in  the  law  and  in  the 
Church,  in  the  civil  and  in  the  military  service.  Philip 
Pietersen  Van  Schuyler  evidently  crossed  the  great  water 
in  the  same  spirit  as  his  countrymen  who  discovered  the 
Hudson  River  and  bought  Manhattan  Island  of  the  natives 

1.  It  has  been  taken  down  and  removed  since  this  was  written. 


14  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

for  sixty  guilders.  Our  Colonial  and  Revolutionary  his- 
tory attest  his  enterprise  and  ability,  and  that  of  his  de- 
scendants. Glaude  Le  Maistre,  as  he  wrote  it,  was  an  exile 
from  Brittany  for  conscience'  sake.  He  married  Hester 
Du  Bois  in  Amsterdam,  also  of  a  Huguenot  family,  and 
they  came  to  America  together,  settling  in  Harlem.  To 
this  couple  all  the  De  La  Maters  in  this  country  trace 
their  origin.  The  Strykers  are  descended  from  Jan  and 
Jacob  Gerriste  Strycker,  two  brothers,  who,  with  Garrit 
Janse,  son  of  Jan,  came  to  New  Amsterdam  in  1652,  from 
Holland,  where  their  ancestors  are  mentioned  as  men  of 
note  in  various  histories  running  back  to  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury. An  able,  earnest,  manly  kind  of  men,  individuality 
was  their  marked  characteristic,  implying  the  capacity  and 
resolution  to  think  and  act  independently  ;  and  this  was 
the  moving  cause  of  their  exile. 

William  Colfax  came  from  England.  He  was  one  of 
the  early  settlers  of  Wethersfield,  Conn.,  the  records  of  the 
village  showing  the  births  of  four  of  his  children  in  1653-59. 
He  was  probably  the  grandfather  of  John  Colfax,  of  New 
London,  who  was  in  turn  the  grandfather  of  William,  born 
July  3d,  1756.  William  Colfax  joined  General  Washing- 
ton's army  at  nineteen  years  of  age  ;  served  from  Bunker 
Hill  to  Yorktown  ;  was  often  wounded  in  action,  once  dan- 
gerously ;  was  chosen  early  into  Washington's  Life  Guard, 
becoming  lieutenant  under  Major  Gibbs,  and  succeeding 
him  toward  the  close  of  the  war  as  Captain-Commandant 
of  the  Guard.  The  Guard  was  a  distinct  corps  of  superior 
men,  attached  to  the  person  of  the  general-in-chief,  but 
never  spared  in  battle.1  During  the  war  and  afterward 
there  was  frequent  interchange  of  social  courtesies  between 
Washington  and  General  Colfax,  the  tradition  of  which, 
with  little  souvenirs  of  both  Washington  and  their  distin- 
guished ancestor,  the  family  cherish  with  affectionate  pride. 

I.  "It  consisted  of  a  major's  command,  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  men,  and  was 
organized  early  in  1776,  on  the  march  of  the  army  from  before  Boston  to  New  York. 
Gibbs,  of  Rhode  Island,  was  the  first  commander,  then  Colfax,  who  continued  in  com- 
mand for  the  war,  and  was  one  of  the  first  officers  in  the  American  army.  The  uniform 
was  blue,  with  white  facings,  white  under-clothes,  and  black  half  -gaiters.  "—Custis's 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Character  of  Washington.'1'1 


CHILDHOOD  AND   YOUTH.  15 

On  the  return  of  peace  General  William  Colfax  married 
Hetty  Schuyler,  and  settled  at  the  Schuyler  homestead,  in 
Pompton,  a  few  miles  above  Paterson,  N.  J.  From  this 
union  proceeded  Schuyler  Colfax,  father  of  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent, who  was  born  August  3d,  1792. 

The  Vice-President's  grandmother,  on  the  maternal 
side,  was  eldest  child  of  Samuel  De  La  Mater,  who  did 
business  in  Canal  Street,  New  York  City,  and  resided  in 
North  Moore  Street.  The  late  John  De  La  Mater,  of  New 
York,  and  the  late  Benjamin  De  La  Mater,  of  Brooklyn, 
were  her  brothers.  She  was  born  in  1780,  and  married 
Peter  Stryker,  of  the  Dey  Street  Strykers.  Early  left  a 
widow,  Mrs.  Stryker  opened  a  boarding-house,  in  order  to 
maintain  herself  and  daughter  Hannah.  Here  it  was  that 
Schuyler  Colfax,  the  elder,  assisting  the  daughter  in  her 
studies  and  attending  her  to  school,  fell  in  love  with  her, 
and  married  her  April  2oth,  1820,  while  she  was  still  a 
mere  child,  just  past  fifteen. 

No  one  now  lives  who  remembers  much  of  Schuyler 
Colfax,  the  father.  Eliza,  wife  of  General  Colfax's  eldest 
son,  George  W.  Colfax,  who  died  in  1869,  at  the  age  of 
four-score,  is  said  to  have  never  wearied  of  talking  of  her 
brother-in-law,  Schuyler  Colfax,  whom  she  described  as 
tall,  slight,  straight,  with  light  hair,  fair  complexion,  blue 
eyes,  dignified  and  courteous,  genial,  thoughtful  of  others, 
*  *  one  could  not  help  loving  him ." *  At  his  death,  which  oc- 
curred October  3oth,  1822,  he  left  a  widow  not  yet  eighteen, 
a  will  in  which  he  speaks  of  "  my  daughter  Mary  and  my 
unborn  child,"  a  few  letters  and  copies  of  letters,  and  the 


1.  In  1860  Mr.  Cassady,  of  Jersey  City,  writes  Mr.  Colfax,  endeavoring  to  identify 
him  with  his  own  father,  or  his  Uncle  William,  as  having  studied  medicine  with  Dr. 
Marvin,  at  Hackensack,  in  1810-12.  Mr.  Colfax  enclosed  Mr.  Cassady's  letter  to  his 
mother,  who  replied  :  "It  must  have  been  somewhat  amusing  to  you  to  be  taken  for 
your  father,  and  have  some  one  trying  to  bring  to  your  mind  events  that  occurred  long 
before  you  were  born.  Mr.  Cassady  may  have  met  your  father  at  Dr.  Marvin's,  for  the 
doctor  and  your  father  were  intimate,  and  the  doctor  visited  us.  He  is  also  right  in  his 
description  of  your  father — '  straight,  well-formed,  and  somewhat  freckled ' — for  he  was 
a  singularly  handsome  man;  but  he  never  studied  medicine,  and  at  the  time  Mr.  Cassady 
thinks  he  did,  your  father,  I  think,  was  overseeing  the  '  Valley  Forge  Furnace,1  back  of 
Newburgh.  If  I  were  going  East  I  would  try  and  see  him,  because  he  seems  to  think  my 
boy  Schuyler  (though  he  is  not  his  own  father)  is  about  right.  People  of  that  opinion 
ought  to  be  encouraged.  Now  I  think  I  see  you  laugh  at  foolish  mother." 


1 6  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

diary  of  a  voyage  to  the  Bermudas,  undertaken  in  the 
hope  of  arresting  the  progress  of  the  disease  which  was 
swiftly  carrying  him  off.  All  of  the  letters  were  written 
within  eight  years  of  his  death  ;  they  indicate  a  man  of 
strong  convictions,  of  a  managing  turn,  just,  thoughtful, 
courteous,  fervent,  an  easy  and  fluent  writer,  in  the  later 
years  religious — in  many  respects  like  his  son,  the  Vice- 
President. 

In  1814  he  was  representing  General  Colfax's  interests  in 
an  iron  furnace  at  Monroe,  Orange  County,  N.  Y.,  and  was 
surprised  to  learn  that  his  father  had  repaired  to  the  field 
"  in  defence  of  a  cause  which  has  hitherto  met  your  [Gen- 
eral Colfax's]  most  decided  disapprobation."  He  disap- 
proved of  the  conduct  of  the  Federalists  in  rendering  volun- 
tary aid  in  the  prosecution  of  "  this  most  unrighteous  war," 
deferring,  however,  to  his  father's  superior  discernment, 
and  wishing  him  "  all  the  felicity  that  must  attend  the 
command  of  such  men  as  the  '  Jersey  Blues.'  "  He  desired 
to  take  one  of  the  general's  farms,  which  he  pointed  out 
had  been  long  abused  by  the  tenant,  and  then,  said  he, 
"  I  should  still  have  one  more  wish— namely,  to  see  my 
dear  father  returned  from  camp,  '  resign  all  the  employ- 
ments of  public  life,'  begin  the  collection  of  his  dues  and 
the  settlement  of  his  partnership  and  other  accounts  ;  and 
in  future  live  in  all  the  happiness  of  domestic  retirement, 
affording  to  himself  that  ease  and  enjoyment  which  his 
age  requires,  his  worth  entitles  him  to,  and  which  his  cir- 
cumstances are  abundantly  able  to  authorize." 

The  furnace  was  sold  at  the  end  of  the  war,  and  Mr. 
Colfax  found  employment  in  the  Mechanics'  Bank,  No.  31 
Wall  Street,  New  York,  where  a  year's  hard  work  brought 
him  promotion  from  clerk  to  book-keeper,  and  developed 
symptoms  of  consumption.  Three  years  later  he  was 
writing  to  his  wife,  in  as  light  a  tone  as  he  could  assume, 
from  Saratoga  Springs.  He  got  little  help  from  the 
springs,  and  the  next  April  he  took  the  sea- voyage  spoken 
of.  As  the  vessel  proceeds  to  Sandy  Hook,  he  writes 
Mrs.  Colfax  :  "  This  separation  has,  indeed,  cost  me  much  ; 
but  let  those  who  have  left  a  young  and  beloved  wife 


No.  86  NORTH  MOORE  STREET,  NEW  YORK. 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  17 

and  such  an  infant  as  our  dear  Mary,  particularly  under 
the  melancholy  circumstances  that  exist  in  my  case — I 
say,  let  them  tell  how  the  chill  sense  of  desolation  has  in- 
vaded their  hearts — none  others  know. "  His  was  a  pathetic 
fate.  The  diary  of  his  voyage  is  touching,  although  there 
is  little  sentiment  in  it.  Once  only  he  exclaims  :  "  Ah, 
Tooty  !  pa's  Tooty,  how  often  I  think  of  you  !"  He  is 
soon  praying  that  his  worst  enemy  may  be  preserved  from 
sea-sickness,  but  consoles  himself  with  the  thought  that 
"  God  may  have  determined  this  voyage  shall  be  the  means 
of  my  restoration  to  health."  He  notes  the  appearance  of 
the  sea,  passing  vessels,  changes  in  the  weather,  speed  of 
sailing,  incidents  on  ship-board,  non-observance  of  Sun- 
days— often  referring  to  his  little  family  at  home,  and 
closing  with  a  semi-religious  soliloquy.  His  health  grows 
worse  instead  of  better,  and  his  spirits  sink.  "  But  for  the 
fresh  air  I  were  as  well  in  a  prison."  At  length  they 
begin  to  pass  the  islands,  and  fifteen  days  out,  anchor  in 
front  of  Frederickstoedt,  go  ashore,  and  he  is  happy  enough 
on  finding  two  or  three  New  Yorkers.  He  describes  the 
country,  the  scenery,  the  trees — cotton,  cocoa,  plantain, 
palm — the  people,  the  streets,  the  style  of  the  houses,  ac- 
knowledging the  fourth  day  on  shore  that  his  complaint  is 
gaining  on  him,  and  that  he  begins  to  think  of  returning 
with  Captain  Clark.  The  next  day  he  is  resolved,  and 
prays  that  he  may  be  spared  to  die  in  his  own  land,  if  die 
he  must.  He  finds  hardly  any  virtue  in  the  people  but 
hospitality.  After  two  weeks  ashore  his  brig  is  ready  to 
sail  on  her  return  voyage,  and  he  writes  :  "  I  am  as  much 
rejoiced  as  the  schoolboy  when  he  hears  the  master  is 
sick."  The  trip  is  in  no  way  remarkable  ;  but  his  story  of 
how  sea-sickness  is  followed  by  home-sickness  and  that  by 
hemorrhages  is  pitiful.  The  hand  of  Death  was  on  him. 
With  the  arrival  off  Sandy  Hook,  May  i4th,  the  journal 
closes. 

He  was  obliged  to  return  to  his  work.  His  father  be- 
sought him  to  take  a  long  journey  in  the  country  on  horse- 
back. "  My  dear  son,  be  persuaded  ;  life  is  dear  to  one  of 
your  age  ;  fly,  then,  to  the  mountains  as  for  your  life — the 


1 8  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

last  resort  in  your  case — and  let  your  next  letter  give  me 
some  comfort  in  this  particular."1  It  was  too  late.  In 
the  latter  part  of  August  he  went  home,  and  within  two 
months  breathed  his  last  in  the  house  where  he  was  born. 
A  few  days  before  he  had  valued  his  effects,  mainly  bills 
receivable,  at  about  twenty-five  hundred  dollars,  three 
fourths  of  which  his  estate  realized,  and  made  his  will.  His 
little  Mary  was  meanwhile  following  her  father  with  swift 
steps.  General  Colfax's  letters  of  the  next  few  months  to 
his  daughter-in-law  are  particularly  fatherly.  Surely  the 
young  widow  needed  sympathy.  Among  other  things  the 
General  was  very  solicitous  concerning  the  babe  to  be 
born.  "  As  the  month  of  March  is  gone,"  he  writes,  "  may 
I  now  anticipate  the  joy  of  hearing  that  you  are  safe  in 
child-bed,  and  that  the  child  is  a  male,  to  bear  the  name 
of  his  dear  deceased  parent.  This  would  be  a  source  of 
real  satisfaction  and  joy,  which  all  our  family  would  par- 
ticipate in  ;  but  with  this,  as  with  all  other  dispensations 
of  Providence,  we  must  learn  therewith  to  be  content/' 
The  event  met  the  General's  wishes.  The  child  was  born 
March  23d,  1823.  It  was  a  boy  ;  it  was  christened  "  Schuy- 
ler  Colfax,"  July  27th,  by  its  great-uncle,  the  Rev.  I.  Y. 
Johnson,  Pastor  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church,  at 
Schodack-on-the-Hudson.  So  the  General's  son  was  re- 
stored to  him.  Little  Mary  died  in  July,  and  was  buried 
at  her  father's  side  in  Pompton  churchyard. 

Mrs.  Colfax  continued  to  live  with  her  mother  in  New 
York.  As  soon  as  her  son  was  old  enough  he  was  sent 
to  Forrest  and  Mulligan's  school  ;  afterward  to  Dr.  Gris- 
com's  Boys'  High  School  in  Crosby  Street  ;  and  when 
that  was  sold  to  the  Society  of  Mechanics  and  Tradesmen, 
May  ist,  1832,  he  attended  a  school  opened  by  Messrs. 
Robert  Carter  and  Richard  H.  Smith,  corner  of  Broadway 
and  Grand  streets.  When  about  nine  years  old  he  was  in 

1.  Same  letter  :  "  Oh,  my  eon,  how  shall  I  reply  to  the  last  sentence  of  your  letter, 
where  you  ask  '  the  intercession  of  a  parent's  prayers! '  Gloom  o'erwhelming  me,  you 
shall  have  all  you  ask  of  me — nay,  I  would  give  more.  If  the  life  of  an  old  afflicted  man, 
approximating  seventy,  laboring  under  infirmities  the  companion  of  age,  would  satisfy  a 
just  and  good  God,  the  commutation  should  be  made  on  my  part,  and  a  life  spared  so 
valuable  to  society,  your  friends,  and,  more  especially,  to  your  dear  little  family." 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  19 

the  habit  of  reciting  his  lessons  for  the  day,  before  going 
to  school,  to  a  young  lady  visiting  the  family.1  Pleased 
with  his  aptness  and  manly  bearing,  she  said  to  him  one 
morning,  tapping  him  on  the  cheek  :  "  If  you  keep  on  in 
this  way,  you'll  be  President  some  day,  sir."  "  I  mean 
to  try  for  it,"  he  answered  firmly.  General  Colfax  watched 
him  with  interest,  but  seems  to  have  had  no  higher  views 
for  him  than  a  clerkship  in  a  store  or  bank.  He  asks 
Mrs.  Colfax  in  a  letter  of  July,  1833,  "  if  it  is  not  most  time 
my  son  Schuyler  was  put  into  a  store  ?  George  C.  Bald- 
win [a  cousin]  was  younger  when  he  went  to  live  with 
Mr.  Moore,  and  is  now  esteemed  to  be  one  of  the  most 
promising  young  men  in  Paterson.2  Schuyler,  with  like 
advantages,  would  do  as  well."  But  his  mother  kept  him 
in  school  a  year  longer. 

Among  her  intimate  friends  was  Colonel  Ralph  Clark, 
of  Argyle,  near  Saratoga.  In  a  letter  to  Miss  Evelyn,  daugh- 
ter of  Colonel  Clark,  a  little  girl  of  his  own  age,  dated 
November  i6th,  1833,  young  Schuyler  says  :  "  I  am  get- 
ting on  with  Latin  and  French,  and  have  just  begun  to 
study  algebra."  And  in  May,  1834,  Mrs.  Colfax  writes  to 
Miss  Evelyn  for  him  :  "  He  wishes  to  be  remembered  affec- 
tionately to  you,  and  regrets  that  he  will  not  be  able  to 
accept  your  kind  invitation  to  make  you  a  visit  ;  his  time 
is  completely  occupied  with  going  to  school  and  his  les- 
sons." These  two  young  correspondents,  often  playmates 
from  the  frequent  exchange  of  visits  between  the  families, 
were  nominally  betrothed  by  their  parents,  and  Mrs.  Col- 
fax always  addressed  Evelyn  as  "  daughter." 

Meanwhile  Mrs.  Stryker  had  removed  from  No.  214 
Broadway  to  corner  of  Broadway  and  Liberty  streets,  and 
thence  to  Brooklyn,  where,  on  the  6th  of  November,  1834, 
the  Widow  Colfax  was  married  to  Mr.  George  W.  Mat- 
thews. He  was  a  native  of  Baltimore,  and  the  eldest  of  a 
large  family  of  children,  whose  parents  had  removed  to 
Ohio,  leaving  him  with  his  uncle,  Mr.  Leonard  Matthews, 

1.  Mrs.  Glorvina  Fort.    She  died  in  Philadelphia  since  this  was  written. 

2.  He  afterward  educated  himself,  studied  for  the  ministry,  is  now,  and  for  many  years 
has  been,  Pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Troy,  N.  Y. 


20  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

who  virtually  adopted  him.  His  family  and  connections 
were  of  the  best  people  of  Baltimore  and  New  Orleans. 
Young  Schuyler  was  between  eleven  and  twelve  years  of 
age  when  his  father  was  restored  to  him,  as  it  were,  by 
this  second  marriage  of  his  mother.  Mr.  Matthews  was 
but  fourteen  years  the  elder.  In  a  few  years  they  had 
become  brothers  rather  than  father  and  son,  and  when  his 
stepfather  died  in  1874,  the  stepson  wrote  of  him  :  "  He 
was  the  best  man  of  all  the  many  I  ever  knew/' 

A  wholesome  atmosphere  pervaded  his  home.  Fifty 
years  afterward  Mr.  Colfax  wrote  of  his  mother  : 
"  Every  year  I  feel  more  and  more  how  much  I  owe  to  that 
dearest  of  all  mothers — in  temperament,  constitution,  en- 
durance of  fatigue,  activity,  comparative  contentment, 
habits,  but  best  of  all,  sympathetic  and  conscientious 
feelings.  The  bufferings  of  life  that  have  come  to  me  could 
scarcely  have  been  endured  but  for  what  I  owe  to  her." 
And  of  the  influences  that  in  part  moulded  him  when  a  boy, 
he  told  the  following  in  the  Sunday-school  of  the  church  of 
which  he  was  a  member  in  South  Bend  :  "  Just  fifty  years 
ago  this  fall,  in  a  large  city  by  the  sea-shore,  nearly  a 
thousand  miles  from  here,  a  lady  whose  husband  was  dead 
took  her  little  boy  by  the  hand,  and  led  him  to  the  Sabbath- 
school.  For  thirty  years  afterward  he  was  a  scholar  or  a 
teacher  of  the  Sabbath -school,  and  he  has  never  forgotten 
those  instructions  of  his  youth.  The  lady  who  took  her 
little  boy  to  that  Sabbath- school  is  now  in  a  happier  land 
than  this,  but  the  boy  is  still  living.  That  lady  was  my 
beloved  mother,  who  is  with  her  Father  and  Saviour  in 
heaven,  and  that  little  boy  was  myself.  To-day  I  come  to 
this  school  with  my  little  boy,  and  his  mother  with  us,  that 
we  may  place  his  imperfect  steps  in  the  same  path  in  which 
my  mother  placed  my  little  feet  half  a  century  ago.  And 
may  God  grant  that  the  impressions  made  upon  his  young 
mind  here  may  remain  with  him  through  all  his  life,  and 
bring  forth  good  fruit  abundantly  in  his  life,  and  words, 
and  deeds." 

Mrs.  Stryker,  the  third  in  the  family  group,  is  spoken 
of  by  her  nieces  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey  as  "  a  saint 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  21 

let  down  from  heaven  for  a  little  while,  and  then  drawn 
right  up  again."  Tall,  straight,  slender,  she  never  weighed 
a  hundred  pounds,  and  although  the  greater  part  of  her  life 
a  hard-working  woman,  she  had  always  a  sweet  voice  and 
the  springing  step  of  a  girl  of  sixteen.  Mentally  strong, 
high-spirited,  high-minded,  conscientious,  and  devout, 
withal  softened  by  unusual  trials,  her  ways  impressed  the 
young  people  about  her,  and  her  sayings  became  family 
traditions.  Her  daughter  and  grandson  lived  with  her  till 
this  new  marriage  ;  now  and  henceforth,  until  she  died  on 
Terre  Coupee  Prairie,  in  1857,  sne  lived  with  her  daughter.1 
High  views  of  life,  the  heritage  of  good  birth,  and  the 
essence  of  good  breeding  were  the  only  ones  presented  to 
young  Colfax  in  his  home. 

Mr.  Matthews  engaged  in  business  in  New  York,  and 
the  lad  of  eleven  began  life  as  clerk  in  his  stepfather's 
store.  His  studies  now  were  not  so  much  in  books  as  in 
what  was  going  on  around  him,  and  particularly  in  politics, 
in  regard  to  which  he  manifested  an  interest,  a  knowledge, 
and  sentiments  very  extraordinary  in  one  so  young.  Going 
out  to  the  Raritan  by  stage  on  one  occasion,  he  so  nettled 
his  mother's  cousin,  Dr.  Peter  Vroom,  that  the  latter  re- 
plied :  "  You  ought  to  be  in  the  nursery  instead  of  talking 
politics  !"  Years  afterward  he  alluded  to  this  in  a  charac- 
teristic letter  to  Mrs.  Woodhull,  of  Camden,  N.  J.,  to  wit : 
"  What  a  saddening  blow  has  fallen  on  your  yearly  dimin- 
ishing family  circle  in  the  death  of  your  brother  Peter  !  I 

1.  On  the  8th  of  February,  1857,  Mrs.  Stryker  wrote  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Evelyn  Colfax, 
which  closed  as  follows  :  "  Hope  in  the  Hearer  of  Prayer.  Hope  leads  us  on,  nor  quits 
us  till  we  die.  I  wish  I  could  write  more,  but  I  am  tired.  Tell  Schuyler  to  be  careful 
of  his  health.  He  is  a  precious  branch  of  a  vile  stock  [Congress] .  God  bless  him  and 
spare  him  to  do  much  good  for  His  glory  and  for  his  country.  Good-by,  dear  children. 
Grandma  '  the  Great.'  "  She  had  just  become  a  great-grandmother. 

The  next  night  she  died.  Coif  ax's  mother  wrote  him  :  "  She  was  unconscious  from 
the  time  she  went  to  sleep,  for  the  cover  was  on  her  and  tucked  around  her  just  as  Carrie 
fixed  it  the  night  before,  and  she  never  moved  a  limb  or  a  muscle  of  her  face.  The 
doctor  says  she  never  suffered." 

Colfax  closed  his  letter  in  reply  :  "  It  is  singular  that  her  letter  to  Evelyn  was  almost 
entirely  in  reference  to  death.  The  shadow  of  the  coming  stroke  seemed  to  be  cast 
across  her  mind  as  she  wrote,  and  the  last  line  was  a  blessing  on  the  grandson  whose 
footsteps  she  had  so  carefully  noted  from  the  cradle.  Dear  old  grandma !  With  her 
frail  body  before  my  mental  vision  now,  I  only  remember  that  she  had  more  than 
her  share  of  sorrow  in  life,  and  that  she  loved  us  all  most  dearly." 


22  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

remember  him  so  well  in  my  boyhood  days,  when  he  was  a 
farmer  on  the  Raritan,  and  you  and  I  used  to  dig  calamus 
together  in  the  bygone  days  that  are  never  to  return.  How, 
boy  that  I  was,  I  used  to  argue  politics  with  him,  once  in 
a  stage  on  our  road  thither,  when  only  ten  years  old  ;  how, 
in  spite  of  it  all,  the  affection  on  both  sides  was  unbroken 
as  I  grew  up  ;  how  he  crossed  two  rivers  to  hear  me  lecture 
at  Beecher's  Church  several  years  ago  on  '  The  Duties  of 
Life,'  and  told  me  he  would  have  given  five  dollars  to 
have  had  his  young  boys  hear  my  counsel  ;  how  I  met  him 
often  after  we  came  to  see  eye  to  eye  on  national  matters  ; 
how  he  called  on  me  several  times  at  Washington  when 
visiting  the  New  Jersey  soldiers  in  the  Potomac  army — 
these  and  many  other  things  have  been  before  my  mind 
to-day." 

One  of  his  New  Jersey  cousins  writes  :  1  "  My  first 
recollection  of  my  dear  Cousin  Schuyler  is  when  he  was 
about  twelve  years  old,  and  came  with  my  dear  Aunt 
Hannah  to  visit  us  at  the  old  Pompton  homestead.  We 
children  stood  in  awe  of  him  when  he  would  leave  us  at 
play  with  the  little  negroes,  and  seat  himself  with  my 
grandfather  and  other  gentlemen,  and  not  only  listen  to 
them  as  they  talked  politics,  but  would  join  in  their  con- 
versation." Always  about  the  polls  election  days,  on  the 
occasion  of  one  important  election  he  was  missed  at  home 
till  midnight.  He  had  waited  at  the  Third  Ward  Poll  in 
New  York — the  decisive  poll  by  the  way — to  get  the  result ; 
had  obtained  it,  and  had  the  satisfaction  on  his  return  to 
Brooklyn  of  being  able  to  give  the  information  for  which 
everybody  was  eagerly  inquiring.  He  had  an  instinct  for 
news,  and  a  newspaper  fascinated  him.  His  diary  of  these 
times,  still  extant,  indicates  a  playful,  fun-loving  disposi- 
tion ;  not  greatly  inclined  to  severe  application  of  any 
kind  ;  hailing  with  delight  his  vacations  among  his  cousins 
in  the  country  ;  not  addicted  to  moralizing,  but  observant, 
active,  and  disposed  to  arrive  in  his  own  way  at  his  own  con- 
clusions. He  was  already  a  commentator,  after  the  style 
of  the  daily  editor  of  to-day,  on  passing  events,  comparing 

1.  Mrs.  Mary  Baldwin  Graves,  of  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  23 

and  criticising  the  news  reports  and  editorials  of  the  jour- 
nals of  the  city  and  the  talk  of  the  street  and  counting- 
room.  Upon  what  he  might  or  would  have  been  in  the 
peculiar  politics  of  his  native  city,  it  would  be  idle  to  spec- 
ulate, for  at  the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  transplanted  into  a 
different  and  a  more  congenial  field. 

In  the  fall  of  1836  the  family  removed  West,  travelling 
via  the  Hudson  River  and  the  Erie  Canal  to  Buffalo,  and 
thence  by  steamer  to  Detroit.  From  Detroit  they  took 
wagon,  emigrant  fashion,  and  were  thirteen  days  reaching 
New  Carlisle,  Ind.,  on  the  Michigan  (State)  Road,  about 
equidistant  from  South  Bend,  Michigan  City,  and  La 
Porte,  with  Terre  Coupee  Prairie  on  the  one  hand  and 
Rolling  Prairie  on  the  other.  All  this  country  between 
Lake  Erie  and  Lake  Michigan  was  very  attractive  to  the 
settler,  being  neither  an  interminable  forest  nor  a  boundless 
prairie,  but  a  wooded  land,  with  prairies  of  perfect  finish, 
and  perhaps  half  as  large  as  a  township,  scattered  about 
through  the  woods.  In  its  variety  of  forest,  field,  lake, 
and  stream,  it  was  a  land  pleasing  to  the  eye,  lacking 
nothing  of  perfection  but  the  diversity  that  comes  of  moun- 
tains. Terre  Coupee  Prairie  appears  now  as  the  bottom 
of  a  drained  lake  or  marsh,  four  or  five  miles  in  diameter, 
with  wooded  shores  ;  a  garden  in  fertility  and  tilth  ;  the 
farm  buildings  half  hidden  by  trees,  with  sentinel  trees 
standing  in  the  fields  like  the  live  oaks  of  the  Pacific. 
But  in  1836  the  prairie  was  bare  of  trees  or  fences  ;  and 
two  years  prior  to  the  advent  of  our  city  emigrants,  Rich- 
ard R.  Carlisle's  house  and  the  double  log-cabin,  bought, 
together  with  the  town  site,  of  the  half-breed  Bursaw,  were 
the  only  buildings  on  "  the  Hill,"  as  New  Carlisle  was 
called.  It  was  a  different  world  from  what  it  is  now. 
Before  they  moved  West  Mr.  Matthews  had  crossed  the 
Grand  Prairie  of  Illinois  on  horseback,  there  being  no 
other  conveyance,  and  but  four  houses  in  a  hundred  miles. 
Four  years  later  Chicago  had  less  than  five  thousand  in- 
habitants. There  were  few  miles  of  railroad,  no  telegraphs, 
few  newspapers,  fewer  labor-saving  machines,  postage  was 
twenty-five  cents  a  letter — comparatively  speaking,  it  was 


24  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

before  the  Flood.  Young  Colfax  had  left  the  centre  of 
population  a  thousand  miles  behind  ;  it  overtook  him  be- 
fore he  died. 

The  first  winter  the  family  built  a  house  and  opened  a 
store.  In  the  house  they  kept  a  Sunday-school — stepfather, 
mother,  and  son  all  teaching  ;  they  soon  had  the  post-office 
and  the  court  in  the  store,  Mr.  Matthews  having  been  elect- 
ed Justice  of  the  Peace  and  appointed  Postmaster  within 
a  year  of  their  arrival.  The  young  man  was  clerk  in  the 
store  and  post-office,  and  amused  himself  by  keeping  a 
chronicle  of  current  events,  a  registry  and  briefs  of  his 
correspondence,  and  a  record  of  election  returns,  so  far  as 
they  fell  in  his  way,  from  all  the  States  and  for  all  kinds 
of  officers.  In  August,  1838,  he  writes  Miss  Clark  at  Ar- 
gyle,N.Y.: 

"  Since  I  have  been  out  here  I  have  been  clerking  in  my 
stepfather's  store,  and  was  for  about  eighteen  months 
pretty  busily  engaged  ;  but  he  not  having  got  any  new 
goods  this  summer,  I  have  a  great  deal  of  leisure  time. 
This  is  a  most  beautiful  country  for  the  eye  to  look  upon, 
and  very  thickly  settled,  principally  by  farmers.  This 
county  is  about  twenty  miles  long  and  fifteen  wide,  and 
gives  twelve  hundred  or  fifteen  hundred  votes,  and  then 
the  people  never  turn  out  generally.  Some  of  the  prairies 
are  as  much  as  twenty  miles  square  [square  miles  he 
means].  Our  town  is  on  a  bluff  or  ridge  running  from 
northwest  to  southeast,  a  distance  of  fifty  miles  or  more, 
about  sixty  feet  higher  than  the  adjoining  country,  and  is 
in  the  southwest  corner  of  the  prairie.  We  can  see  four 
hundred  farms  under,  of  some  eighty  acres  in  a  field,  in 
a  high  state  of  cultivation.  The  farm-houses  are  usually 
in  the  edges  of  the  prairie  or  on  the  State  Road.  Almost 
all  kinds  of  berries  grow  wild  here,  and  crab-apples,  plums, 
and  cherries  ;  hazel-nuts  will  get  ripe  the  first  frost.  We 
have  locust-trees  set  round  our  garden  ;  my  mother  calls  it 
'  Locust  Place.'  Our  melons  and  roasting  ears  are  all 
ripe,  and  we  feast  on  the  latter  every  day.  Very  few  peo- 
ple have  orchards,  although  the  country  has  been  settled 
six  or  seven  years." 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  2$ 

A  "  commonplace  book"  shows  how  he  employed  part 
of  his  leisure.  The  selections  copied  into  it  range  through 
ancient  and  modern  standard  literature,  history,  and 
poetry.  There  is  also  much  from  contemporary  papers  and 
periodicals,  politics,  statistics,  poetry,  sentiment  and  fact  all 
mixed  up  together.  In  April,  1839,  Mr.  Matthews  sold  the 
store  ;  there  was  too  little  money  in  the  country  and  too 
many  peddlers,  and  they  had  to  trust  too  much.  A  little 
later  young  Colfax  writes  his  cousin,  George  A.  Vroom,  of 
New  Jersey  :  "  Mr.  Matthews  and  my  mother  desire  me 
to  study  law,  and  think  I  will  make  a  lawyer.  I  am  doubt- 
ful about  it,  but  to  please  them  will  study  and  do  my  best." 
Again,  to  his  friend  Wilson,  at  Rockford,  111. :  "  I  have  taken 
a  notion  to  study  law,  and  must  give  up  my  visit  East,  and 
save  my  money  to  purchase  books."  Writing  to  his  Uncle 
George,  in  the  fall,  his  mother  says  :  "  Schuyler  has  com- 
menced studying  law.  He  is  a  tall  boy — tall  as  I  am — the 
samefair-complexioned  fellow.  He  is  quite  a  writer.  His 
articles  In  the  county  paper  are  extremely  well  thought  of 
by  our  smartest  and  most  intelligent  men.  So  far  he  does 
credit  to  the  good  education  I  tried  to  give  him.  You 
would  be  delighted  to  hear  him  converse,  young  [not  yet 
seventeen]  as  he  is."  In  the  same  letter  Mr.  Matthews 
writes  :  "  I  can  assure  you  he  is  a  boy  that  does  appreciate 
kindness,  and  is  possessed  of  talents  that  will  some  day 
cause  his  friends  to  feel  justly  proud  of  him.  I  am  deter- 
mined that,  so  far  as  my  humble  means  will  avail,  he  shall 
not  lack  encouragement.  His  inclination,  I  think,  is  tow- 
ard the  law,  and  that  is  in  this  country  the  most  lucrative 
profession." 

About  this  time  he  began  a  series  of  what  he  entitled 
"  Journal  of  Events,  Thoughts,  and  Time  ;  Comparisons, 
Illustrations,  and  Musings,  by  Schuyler  Colfax  ;"  books 
six  by  twelve  inches,  of  brown  wrapping-paper,  stitched 
together,  written  very  closely,  and  running  to  No.  7,  all 
but  one  or  two  of  which  are  extant.  They  are  not  consecu- 
tive, but  apparently  dropped  and  taken  up  again  on  the 
impulse.  They  treat  of  the  weather,  the  crops,  prices, 
progress  of  farming  operations,  general  business,  starting 


26  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

of  manufactures  ;  of  politics,  religious  movements,  domestic 
and  personal  matters,  trips  to  neighboring  towns  ;  they 
record  stories,  and,  with  slight  omissions  and  changes, 
would  have  made  excellent  bulletins  of  local  and  general 
news,  especially  the  former,  for  any  contemporary  news- 
paper. "  I  throw  these  sketches  together  for  reference  at 
some  future  time,  and  also  to  while  away  a  few  minutes 
every  day,  in  the  hope  that  it  will  improve  my  manner  of 
expressing  myself  on  paper." 

With  the  proceeds  of  a  pension  received  by  Mrs.  Stryker 
on  her  deceased  husband's  account,  who  had  died  in  the 
Naval  service  in  1820,  they  bought  an  eighty-acre  farm  on 
Terre  Coupee  and  a  forty-acre  wood  lot  near  by.  Young 
Colfax  spent  the  fall  on  the  farm,  harvesting,  storing,  and 
threshing  the  corn,  hauling  it  to  market,  and  getting  up 
the  wood.  Whereupon  he  exclaims  in  his  journal  :  "  Be- 
hold a  student-at-law  transformed  into  a ,  student-at- 
work  !"  There  were  lively  times  on  the  Hill  that  winter. 
"  I  attended  dancing-school  eleven  evenings,  a  New  Year's 
ball,  and  a  cotillon  party,  and  if  ever  I  did  enjoy  myself 
it  was  last  winter."  They  had  a  debating  school,  in  which 
he  took  part  a  few  times,  and  "  I  think  I  did  pretty  well 
for  a  first  attempt,"  he  writes.  He  was  selected  by  the 
youngsters  to  outsit  a  Michigan  City  lawyer,  who  had  had 
the  audacity  to  ask  one  of  the  Hill  girls  for  her  "  com- 
pany." According  to  the  chronicle,  he  did  it.  He  de- 
scribes his  partners  at  the  dances  humorously,  and  takes 
off  the  young  Hoosiers — with  whom  he  ranks  himself — "  as 
incapable  of  keeping  up  a  chat  with  a  lady,  or  of  talk- 
ing anything  but  politics  and  business  with  men/'  The 
"  frolickers"  found  a  fine  field  in  their  daily  runs  through 
the  sugar-camps  in  the  sap  season. 

Journal  No.  5  opens  in  July,  1840,  runs  to  the  end  of  the 
year,  and  is  full  of  the  Log-cabin  and  Hard  Cider  cam- 
paign ;  reports  of  meetings,  synopses  of  the  speeches  on 
both  sides,  criticisms,  incidents,  stories,  as  if  written  for  the 
newspapers.  Describing  at  length  the  delegations  from 
different  towns,  the  mottoes,  procession,  and  the  speaking 
at  a  great  Whig  "  rally"  at  South  Bend,  September  loth, 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  2/ 

he  says  :  '*  Dinner  was  then  announced,  and  the  multitude 
repaired  to  the  table,  eight  hundred  and  sixty  feet  of  which 
was  covered  with  the  plain  log-cabin  fare  of  the  Hoosiers, 
donated  by  the  farmers  of  this  county.  It  was  eaten,  too, 
in  log-cabin  style — not  a  piece  of  iron  or  steel  on  the 
table.  The  chickens,  beef,  pork,  and  bread  were  cut  up 
before  the  guests  were  called,  and  every  man  used  his 
fingers  and  jack-knife,  and  instead  of  the  high-priced  wines 
which  are  said  to  grace  Van  Buren's  table,  the  log-cabin 
boys  drank  water  in  tin  cups." 

In  this  month  of  September  he  was  still  reading  law, 
not  so  closely  as  he  could  wish,  he  writes,  "  for  the  mania 
of  politics  has  taken  possession  of  me,  and  I  am  whirling 
about  in  the  vortex  of  arguing  and  writing  in  favor  of  our 
hero,  and  against  '  Van,  the  used-up  man/  with  pleasurable 
excitement."  He  thinks  he  could  win  enough  on  the  elec- 
tion to  pay  his  postage  bill  for  ten  years  if  he  chose.  In 
reply  to  some  banter  about  his  arrangements  with  Miss 
Evelyn  Clark,  he  says  :  "  I  have  made  a  vow  not  to  wed  a 
wife  until  I  am  elected  to  Congress  ;  so  you  see  there  is 
nothing  in  it,  or  if  there  is,  it  is  a  good  way  off."  At  the 
same  time  he  writes  Colonel  Clark  :  "  My  mother  says 
she  had  your  consent  some  time  since.  Perhaps  you  want 
to  back  out,  but  I  shall  not  let  you.  You  may  have  some 
rich  boy  or  young  man  in  your  eye  for  Evelyn  ;  but  I 
hold  you  to  your  promise,  and  there  you  will  have  to 
stick."  The  Clarks  urged  him  to  come  East  and  pursue 
his  law  studies  with  "  brother"  James.  He  thanked  them, 
but  declined  ;  there  was  more  opportunity  in  the  West  ; 
he  would  not  have  to  study  so  long  ;  and,  he  added,  "  I 
hope  one  of  these  days  to  build  up  for  myself  a  name  and 
reputation  of  which  my  Revolutionary  grandsire  would 
have  been  proud." 

In  October,  1840,  he  writes  :  "  I  have  been  cleaning 
and  hauling  oats,  chopping  wood,  making  out  quarterly 
returns  of  post-office  and  post-office  bills  for  delinquents 
in  paying  postage,  reading  politics,  speeches,  and  election 
returns,  packing,  directing,  and  mailing  political  matter 
for  Michigan,  reading  literary  works,  writing  letters, 


28  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

copying  poetry  for  newspaper,  reading  some  law,  and  rid- 
ing about  the  county.  A  farmer's  life  is  generally  bragged 
upon  as  the  most  independent,  but  in  times  like  these  the 
independence  of  it  is  more  a  shadow  than  a  reality  ;  for 
after  the  most  rigid  economy  and  constitution-breaking 
labor  the  farmer  will  hardly  realize  enough  to  support  his 
family  through  the  winter  and  pay  his  previous  debts/' 

He  soliloquized  as  follows  on  his  eighteenth  birthday  : 
"  Eighteen  years  ago  I  was  born.  Now  I  cannot  turn  my 
face  without  meeting  the  glance  of  friends.  And  eighteen 
years  more,  perhaps,  will  pass,  and  what  then  ?  I  would 
not  leave  the  happy  present,  if  I  could,  to  look  into  the 
future.  Why  should  I  ?  If  the  mirror  should  reflect  back 
my  image  degraded,  denounced,  and  suffering,  it  would  be 
paralyzing  to  honest  exertion.  If  it  were,  on  the  contrary, 
to  show  me  honored,  wealthy,  and  contented,  it  could  not 
make  my  restless  spirit  more  daring  ;  for  let  what  will  be- 
tide, there  is  a  never-sleeping  something  in  me  that  whis- 
pers, Go  on  !  go  on  !  And  go  on  I  will,  perhaps  to  climb 
the  ladder  of  fame,  perhaps  to  mount  a  single  step,  and 
then  fall  back  in  disgrace  forever.  Let  either  be  my  fate, 
it  has  been  predestined,  and  not  willingly  would  I  read  my 
fate  in  advance."  He  went  on,  because  he  was  obliged  to. 
He  was  born  with  the  wound-up  spring  in  him  which  never 
let  him  rest  until  it  was  completely  unwound. 

In  1841  he  contemplated  a  visit  to  the  East,  but  it  de- 
pended on  his  getting  a  remittance  from  his  little  farm  in 
New  Jersey.  General  Colfax,  full  of  years  and  honors,  had 
died  in  September,  1838,  and  been  buried  with  the  honors 
of  war  on  his  own  estate,  his  widow  following  him  within  a 
year.  A  legacy  of  fifty  dollars  had  fallen  to  young  Col- 
fax  from  the  General  and  three  lots  of  land — fifty-five  acres 
in  all — from  his  Grandmother  Colfax.  Correspondence 
had  opened  between  him  and  his  Uncle  George,  which 
continued  till  after  he  attained  his  majority.  Early  in 
1839  he  writes  that  he  had  expected  to  visit  them  all,  and 
to  see  and  embrace  his  grandfather,  but  could  not.  "  I  hope 
he  received  my  letter  of  last  fall  ;  I  should  be  grieved  if  he 
died,  thinking  I  had  forgotten  him/ '  He  begged  for 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  29 

some  of  his  late  grandfather's  letters  and  papers,  his  jour- 
nals during  the  war,  and  autograph  letters  of  Washington, 
if  any.  He  would  consider  the  postage  cheap,  even  if  it 
should  amount  to  five  dollars. 

His  uncle  proposing  to  leave  some  matters  of  account 
pertaining  to  fencing  and  cropping  his  land  to  a  third  per- 
son, he  writes  :  "  With  your  permission,  my  dear  uncle,  I 
would  much  rather  leave  it  to  you."  He  sold  two  of  his 
lots  to  his  uncle  for  five  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  agreeing 
to  make  a  deed  to  one  of  them  on  coming  of  age.  When 
the  day  arrived  he  executed  and  forwarded  the  document. 
It  was  returned  to  him,  because  "  not  properly  executed," 
his  uncle  suggesting  that  if  he  execute  a  new  deed  and 
pay  the  postage,  it  would,  perhaps,  teach  him  to  be  more 
careful  in  future.  This  brought  the  following  explanation  : 
44  I  hunted  all  the  town  over  for  a  copy  of  the  New  Jersey 
statutes  in  vain.  I  consulted  resident  Jerseymen,  but  they 
could  give  me  no  light  on  the  subject.  I  went  through 
the  statutes  of  nine  States,  to  see  what  the  general  rule 
was,  if  any.  I  then  examined  Halsted's  '  New  Jersey  Su- 
preme Court  Decisions,'  to  see  if  any  cases  had  been  car- 
ried up  on  proof  of  deeds.  I  found  nothing  to  the  purpose, 
and  I  then  made  out  the  deed  to  the  best  of  my  ability. 
You  will  see,  at  least,  my  dear  uncle,  that  I  was  not  care- 
less." It  was  characteristic  of  him  to  exhaust  care  and 
patience  to  do  a  thing — anything,  exactly  right  ;  he  could 
not  then  bear  to  be  criticised,  either  for  failure  in  fact  or 
intention.  He  afterward  sold  his  remaining  lot  to  his 
uncle  for  five  hundred  dollars.  The  correspondence  ex- 
hibits him  as  an  affectionate,  high-minded  boy  ;  thrifty, 
and  desiring  fair  treatment,  but  not  greedy  ;  trusting,  be- 
lieving that  his  uncle  would  act  honorably  with  him,  be- 
cause, as  he  once  says,  "  his  name  was  Colfax,  and  that 
was  the  natural  and  only  thing  for  a  Colfax  to  do."  l  He 

1.  Pride  of  family  undoubtedly  had  a  strong  influence  in  moulding  his  character.  Re- 
ferring to  his  uncle's  remark,  "  You  gave  me  a  chance  to  sneak  out  "  (of  an  offer  for  one 
of  the  lots  of  land),  he  writes:  "  I  know  too  well  the  candor  and  integrity  of  the  Colfax 
with  whom  I  was  dealing  to  doubt  your  word  ;  I  would  trust  you  with  all  I  have  without 
fear,  and  I  know  I  consider  my  word  as  of  equal  if  not  superior  moral  binding  force  to 
my  bond." 


3O  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

accepted  his  uncle's  offers  for  the  different  lots  of  land  in 
every  instance.  All  their  business  was  settled  to  their 
mutual  satisfaction,  the  last  letter  of  the  series  being  writ- 
ten in  New  York  City,  in  September,  1844,  announcing 
that  he  would  "  visit  his  uncle  after  attending  the  great 
Whig  meeting  in  Boston." 

In  May,  1841,  he  writes  Miss  Clark  :  "If  I  should  not 
get  a  satisfactory  return  from  my  farm,  I  do  not  consider  I 
would  be  right  to  borrow  money  to  travel  on,  depending, 
too,  upon  an  uncertainty  whether  I  should  repay  it  or  not ; 
but  if  I  am  disappointed  I  shall  feel  like  dying  with  vexa- 
tion." The  round  trip  would  have  cost  him  eighty  dollars. 
He  could  have  made  the  money  by  hiring  as  clerk  at  twelve 
dollars  a  month,  but  he  says  he  was  too  ambitious  to 
abandon  his  studies  for  that.  To  his  Uncle  George  he 
writes  :  "  To-day,  the  Congressional  election  in  the  State, 
I  have  been  busy  as  a  bee  writing  and  electioneering,  and 
I  am  tired  out,  but  I  don't  care  ;  we  gave  Henry  S.  Lane, 
Whig  [who,  twenty-seven  years  afterward,  placed  Colfax 
in  nomination  for  the  Vice-Presidency],  at  our  poll  eighty 
votes  to  the  Locos'  thirty-three  for  John  Boyce."  That 
is  the  way  he  prosecuted  his  studies  for  the  Bar.  His  last 
journal  ends  with  an  exact  programme  of  his  intended 
visit  East,  filling  two  months,  in  which  a  habit  of  the  man 
was  forecast.  He  preserved  in  scrap-books  forty  or  fifty 
of  his  letters  to  the  newspapers,  written  when  he  was  be- 
tween sixteen  and  twenty.  They  are  bright  and  newsy, 
mainly  devoted  to  business  and  politics.  Mr.  Greeley  writes 
him  in  1842:  "Your  letters  are  most. invaluable,  and  I 
thank  you  for  them  ;  I  owe  you  more  than  good-will." 

He  received  the  desired  remittance,  visited  his  Eastern 
friends,  arriving  in  July,  and  was  back  at  New  Carlisle  by 
the  25th  of  August.1  "  Home  again,  six  and  a  half  days 

1.  Mr.  John  C.  Matthews  writes  to  Mrs.  Hollister,  daughter  of  Mrs.  Matthews : 
"  I  well  remember,  in  the  winter  of  1842,  when  I  was  living  at  your  house,  Schuyler 
went  to  New  York,  and  upon  his  return  his  mother  asked  him  if  he  went  to  see  Mr. 
Greeley,  editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune.  He  replied  :  '  No,  mother  ;  I  was  afraid  if  he 
saw  me,  a  stripling  of  a  boy,  it  would  lower  his  estimate  of  me  '—then  one  of  his  big 
laughs.  Schuyler  was  a  correspondent  of  the  Tribune.  Greeley  had  never  seen  him,  but 
was  puffing  his  articles  petters]  almost  every  week.  Tour  mother  took  him  to  task 
about  it ;  she  thought  he  should  have  visited  Mr.  Greeley/' 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  31 

from  Albany,"  he  writes  his  Uncle  George.  "  I  had  a  great 
desire  to  visit  you  again  before  I  returned,  but  the  anxiety 
of  my  mother  to  have  me  come  home  prevented  me."  He 
went  to  New  Jersey  by  way  of  Argyle,  and  seems  to  have 
been  charmed  by  his  child  fiancee,  both  just  past  eighteen, 
for  in  subsequent  letters  to  her  he  subscribes  himself, 
"  Your  own  Schuyler." 

On  the  26th  of  August,  1841,  they  removed  to  South 
Bend,  Mr.  Matthews  having  been  elected  Auditor  of  St. 
Joseph  County  by  the  Whigs,  on  the  first  of  the  same 
month.  The  Auditor  was  county  supervisor,  and  clerk, 
and  executive  officer  of  the  county  board  ;  he  kept  the  rec- 
ords of  the  county,  attended  to  its  revenues,  prepared  the 
tax-lists,  settled  with  the  collector,  guarded  the  treasury, 
superintended  the  county  expenditures,  and  had  the  care 
and  management  of  the  various  school  and  trust  funds. 
Capacity,  integrity,  and  physical  endurance  were  required 
of  an  officer  charged  with  these  responsible  and  laborious 
duties.  It  was  an  excellent  school  for  the  young  man, 
whom  Auditor  Matthews  made  his  deputy.  The  Auditor 
was  appointed  Master  in  Chancery  by  the  Judge,  and  the 
two  offices  paid  five  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year  in 
emoluments.  Mr.  Matthews  was  re-elected  in  1845,  so  that 
Colfax  filled  the  office  of  Deputy-Auditor  eight  years. 

"  We  are  all  highly  pleased  with  our  situation,"  he 
writes  ;  "  my  grandmother  especially  appreciates  very 
highly  the  sanctuary  privileges  from  which  she  has  been 
so  long  debarred."  He  was  in  a  frolicsome  mood,  his 
first  winter  in  South  Bend,  and  writes  with  keen  enjoy- 
ment of  the  mischief  in  which  he  engaged.  "  I  haven't  set- 
tled down  to  my  law  reading,  because  my  mind  is  so  full  of 
other  subjects.  Perhaps  I  will  be  more  ambitious  after  I 
get  over  my  fit  of  mischief.  The  dam  which  has  kept  it 
back  has  given  way,  and  now  it  has  full  vent,  and  is  rush- 
ing along  at  a  rapid  rate."  He  concealed  his  engagement 
with  Miss  Clark  by  acknowledging  it,  no  one  believing 
him.  Although  not  a  singer,  he  joined  the  Presbyterian 
singing-school.  "  In  less  than  a  month,"  he  writes,  "  I 
think  we  shall  get  the  boys  and  girls  of  this  town  by  the 


32  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

ears."  The  sewing  societies  attached  to  the  churches  af- 
forded a  fine  field  for  these  "  frolickers."  He  concluded 
after  a  little  that  he  could  not  learn  to  sing,  "  unless  I  can 
get  a  teacher  with  more  influence  over  me.  I  am  always 
half  an  octave  behind  or  ahead." 

Some  of  his  amusements  had  a  serious  purpose,  and  in- 
dicate his  taste  for  public  affairs.  Such  were  reports  of 
supposed  town  meetings  on  subjects  of  current  interest  and 
the  holding  of  a  "  Pie  Poudre  Court" — Judge  Colfax  pre- 
siding— an  old  English  court,  whose  sentences  were  exe- 
cuted on  the  spot.  In  this  court  his  associates  were  prose- 
cuted in  regular  form  for  alleged  social  offences — a  kind  of 
play  that  demands  more  wit  and  invention  than  most  gen- 
uine legal  proceedings.  Of  greater  consequence,  however, 
was  a  mock  Legislature,  which  met  weekly  in  the  evening, 
preparing  its  business  between  sessions.  There  was  one 
member  for  each  county  in  the  State.  Dr.  Leonard  B. 
Rush  was  Speaker  ;  Colfax  was  "  the  gentleman  from 
Jasper,"  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee,  and  En- 
grossing Clerk.  Topics  of  current  interest  were  considered 
and  acted  upon  by  this  body  with  all  the  seriousness  and 
decorum  of  a  real  legislative  House.  The  member  from 
Jasper  was  one  of  a  select  committee,  to  which  was  referred 
a  bill  taxing  the  professions  for  the  support  of  education. 
The  committee  reported  against  it  ;  but  Colfax,  in  a  minor- 
ity report,  argued  its  justice  and  expediency  so  con- 
vincingly that  the  bill  passed.  "  The  farmer  pays  a  heavy 
sum  yearly,"  said  he,  "  on  his  real  estate  and  his  personal 
property  ;  while  the  lawyer  and  the  doctor,  authorized  by 
law  to  collect  fees  for  their  services,  and  in  the  highway  to 
office  and  power,  pay  merely  on  their  books,  assessed  at 
about  one  fourth  of  their  cost.  The  contrast  between  the 
burdens  of  the  two  classes  is  obvious.  These  gentlemen 
fill  all  the  departments  of  government,  and  lay  grievous 
burdens  on  the  farmer,  the  mechanic,  and  the  laborer — to 
pay  interest  on  the  State  debt,  the  expenses  of  the  coun- 
ties, to  keep  up  the  roads,  build  school-houses,  and  sup- 
port education — which  they  themselves  hardly  turn  a  fin- 
ger to  help  carry." 


CHILDHOOD   AND    YOUTH.  33 

The  same  principle — namely,  equality  of  burdens — he 
urged  in  the  debates  on  the  Tax  bill  during  the  civil  war, 
in  advocating  the  taxation  of  bank  circulation.  In  dealing 
with  public  affairs,  justice  was  the  ideal  and  fair  play  the 
rule  of  his  life.  Twenty-seven  winters  had  succeeded  this 
one,  when  he  said  in  a  speech  at  the  capital  of  his  State  : 
"  My  character  is  known  to  all  of  you.  It  has  been  an 
open  page  for  the  last  fourteen  years,  for  whomsoever  would 
to  look  upon  and  see  for  themselves.  My  principles  are  the 
convictions  of  my  life,  growing  with  my  growth  and 
strengthening  with  my  strength.  I  believe  in  them  as  I 
believe  in  inspiration,  and  I  expect  to  adhere  to  them  with- 
out variableness  or  the  shadow  of  turning  until  I  see  them 
fixed  like  the  eternal  granite  in  the  legislation  and  policy 
of  my  country."  The  proposed  tax  was  five  dollars  a  year, 
to  be  devoted  to  sustaining  the  schools. 

He  also  reported  in  favor  of  compulsory  education,  two 
years  of  it  to  be  gratuitous.  He  said  that  in  certain  Euro- 
pean countries  which  had  adopted  compulsory  education 
"  a  beggar  is  seldom  seen  ;  there  are  fewer  crimes  com- 
mitted ;  less  poverty  and  misery  exist  ;  and  more  real  com- 
fort and  happiness  are  enjoyed  by  the  poor  man's  family 
than  in  countries  that  have  not  adopted  the  system.  In 
New  York  and  the  Yankee  States  one  third  of  the  whole 
population  attend  the  schools,  and  if  we  wish  to  find  intel- 
ligence and  virtue,  in  no  States  are  they  found  in  more  per- 
fection than  in  these/'  He  cited  statistics  showing  that 
one  seventh  of  the  adults  of  Indiana  could  neither  read  nor 
write.  Unpleasant  statistics,  he  called  them,  to  the  friends 
of  education  ;  but  they  proved  that  something  should  be 
done.  Already  there  was  a  large  school  fund,  but  that 
was  not  enough.  He  closed  as  follows  :  "  The  committee, 
in  concluding  their  report,  feel  free  to  say  that  they  doubt 
very  much  the  success  of  their  bill  during  the  present  ses- 
sion of  the  Legislature.  The  spirit  of  the  age,  it  is  true, 
is  progressive,  and  in  almost  every  other  part  of  the 
United  States  east  of  us  education  advances  hand  in  hand 
with  material  growth.  In  Indiana,  however,  the  plan  of 
universal  education  may  be  considered  as  a  rash  experi- 


34  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

ment  and  a  novel  innovation  upon  the  system  of  children- 
teaching  now  in  use.  The  committee  have  felt  that  their 
task  was  embarrassing  ;  but  having  willingly  assumed  it, 
they  have  considered  that  it  was  their  duty  frankly  and 
firmly  to  perform  it.  In  the  accompanying  bill,  therefore, 
the  Assembly  will  find  our  views  embodied,  and  we  now 
leave  it  to  their  wisdom  to  decide  upon."  The  intention 
of  the  actors  in  these  proceedings  was  to  familiarize  them- 
selves with  parliamentary  usage.  To  Colfax  it  was  a  valu- 
able experience,  as  he  afterward  admitted.  "  Great  inter- 
est is  felt  in  our  debates,"  he  wrote.  The  slavery  question 
could  not  be  excluded,  and  was  exhaustively  discussed. 
"  An  obscure  school-teacher,  named  Joseph  Call,  who  died 
early,"  said  the  late  Judge  Stanfield,  of  South  Bend,  to 
the  author,  "  made  a  most  remarkable  Abolition  speech, 
settling  us  all." 

In  February  (1842)  Colfax  writes  his  Uncle  George  : 
"  Tell  Dick  I  don't  drink  any  more  '  tamarack  '  or  '  Jersey 
lightning  ' — nothing  worse  than  cold  water."  And  to  Miss 
Clark  :  "  Since  my  return  West  I  have  taken  an  inward 
pledge  against  drinking  any  kind  of  liquor.  Thus  far  I 
have  kept  it  strictly,  and  in  all  my  gayety  and  blithesome- 
ness  no  temptation  shall  ever  lead  me  to  pollute  my  lips 
with  the  liquid  fire."  A  quarter  of  a  century  later  Senator 
Henry  Wilson  said:  "Now  [speaking  of  Congress]  let 
me  not  slander  them  ;  let  me  not  forget  to  tell  you 
that  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
for  three  consecutive  terms,  has  elected  a  teetotaler  as 
its  presiding  officer  ;  and  in  his  habits  and  in  his  person 
Schuyler  Colfax  refutes  the  statement  that  we  often  hear, 
that  you  cannot  find  a  genial  good  fellow  who  is  a 
teetotaler."  As  the  winter  drew  to  its  close,  the  "Total 
Abstinence  Society "  suddenly  increased  in  number 
sevenfold.  "  Two  more  meetings  will  sweep  the  whole 
town,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  opinionated  moderate 
drinkers.  I  have  spoken  at  every  meeting  lately,  and 
so  has  Mr.  Matthews,  who  is — and  so  am  I — the  warm- 
est kind  of  a  teetotaler.  My  mother  is  also  a  member.  The 
county  society  has  grown  from  one  hundred,  five  months 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  35 

ago,  to  six  hundred  now.  Is  not  this  cause  of  joy,  and  do 
you  wonder  that  I  am  enthusiastic  in  the  good  work  ?  My 
remarks  in  the  meetings  are,  of  course,  practical,  for  I 
have  no  [drinking]  experience  to  tell." 

With  a  few  other  youngsters  he  had  pledged  himself  to 
abstain  from  smoking  for  three  months,  as  a  trial  of  their 
moral  fortitude.  "  You  congratulate  me  on  abandoning 
smoking/'  he  wrote  later;  "but  the  pledge  expired 
last  week,  and  we  have  all  been  smoking  gloriously  ever 
since.  One  of  the  members  broke  the  pledge  ;  we  tried 
and  convicted  him,  and  turned  him  out,  and  fined  him  one 
hundred  Spanish  cigars,  which  will  last  us  some  time.  I 
don't  think  it  does  me  much  harm,  if  any,  and  I  guess  I 
won't  join  another  anti-tobacco  society  soon."  A  dozen 
members  of  the  Total  Abstinence  Society  organized  a  mis- 
sionary department,  of  which  he  was  secretary.  In  one 
month  they  established  six  societies  in  the  back  settle- 
ments, and  procured  one  hundred  and  fifty  signatures  to 
the  total  abstinence  pledge.  His  principal  office  work  was 
from  May  to  August,  inclusive,  and  as  the  rush  ended  in 
1842,  he  re-resolved  to  read  law,  in  deference  to  the  wishes 
of  his  family  and  of  many  friends  at  the  Bar  arid  elsewhere, 
and  to  'cease  temperance  lecturing,  as  it  took  too  much  of 
his  time  ;  but  he  never  ceased  working  for  temperance 
during  his  life. 

The  next  winter  he  writes  from  Indianapolis.  State 
Senator  John  D.  Defrees,  who  had  long  taken  a  friendly  in- 
terest in  him,  had  written  him  in  November  :  "  Whether  I 
can  get  you  a  situation  as  Assistant  Clerk  is  uncertain  ;  but  I 
will  guarantee  you  employment  to  make  your  board  and  one 
hundred  dollars  ;  don't  fail  to  come,  on  any  account."  He 
found  Defrees' s  house  the  storm-centre  of  Whig  politics, 
and,  of  course,  congenial.  Like  Gambetta,  on  first  going 
to  Paris,  he  was  intensely  interested  in  the  proceedings 
and  debates  of  the  Legislature.  He  was  engaged  as  Senate 
Reporter  for  Defrees' s  paper,  the  Indiana  State  Journal,  and 
also  as  Assistant  Enrolling  Clerk.  At  this  time  his  mother 
wrote  to  his  Uncle  George  :  "  He  is  in  his  element,  but  I 
fear  that  this  winter,  with  the  flattery  of  those  who  think 


36  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

him  a  talented  young  Whig,  will  induce  him  to  give  still 
more  attention  to  politics  ;  and  I  should  regret  to  see  my 
son's  fine  talents  all  dwindle  down  into  an  ambitious  poli- 
tician, when  he  is  by  nature,  as  I  think,  fitted  to  make  a 
noble  lawyer."  To  her  son  the  mother  wrote:  "Your 
account  of  the  dissipation  at  the  Capital  makes  me  tremble. 
Remember  what  you  have  told  me  were  the  sentiments  of 
your  friend  Walker — never  go  in  the  company  of  one  you 
could  not  introduce  to  your  mother  and  sisters  ;  and  to 
his  words  I  will  add,  that  you  could  not  introduce  to  your 
intended  wife."  All  his  relatives  on  his  mother's  side 
shared  her  dislike  of  politics — a  dislike  which  her  son  ul- 
timately did  much  to  dissipate.  He  was  highly  praised  for 
his  work  as  reporter,  and  without  doubt  he  deserved  it. 
His  pen  was  a  ready  one,  he  was  ambitious,  and  the  work 
was  just  to  his  hand.  On  his  return  home  in  March  (1843), 
he  wrote  his  Uncle  George  : 

"  The  New  Jersey  Whigs  are  the  salt  of  the  earth— God 
bless  them  !  I  read  the  account  in  your  letter  of  your 
glorious  victory  of  last  October  to  our  Clay  Club,  and  it 
won  for  the  '  Jersey  Blues '  a  round  of  applause.  I  have 
had  many  over-partial  friends  soliciting  me  to  be  a  candi- 
date for  [State]  Representative  next  year,  when  I  will  be  just 
twenty-one,  and  guaranteeing  my  election  if  I  consent  ; 
but  I  have  declined,  pleading  youth,  diffidence,  and  lack 
of  qualifications  ;  and  besides  that,  I  am  reading  law,  and 
intend  to  become  a  lawyer,  if  I  have  brains  enough.  I  was 
at  Indianapolis  during  the  last  session  of  the  Legislature, 
as  Senate  Reporter  for  the  Indiana  State  Journal,  whereby  I 
paid  all  my  expenses,  became  acquainted  with  many  of  the 
leading  men  of  the  State,  and  made  many  friends.  We 
go  here  for  Clay  and  Talmadge — the  devil  take  Tyler  !" 

Expecting  to  receive  a  small  sum  of  money  (ten  dollars) 
from  his  Uncle  George,  he  had  incurred  obligations  on  the 
strength  of  it,  and  he  writes  :  "  I  trust  now  you  will  re- 
lieve me  from  this  unpleasant  situation,  for  it  is  the  first 
time  that  I  ever  owed  money  that  was  not  paid  up  just  as 
it  was  promised.  I  am  still  delving  into  the  mysteries  of 
the  law,  but  my  head  is  full  of  politics  also.  Through  the 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  37 

solicitation  of  the  leading  Whigs  of  this  section,  I  have 
been  acting  as  principal  editor  of  our  paper,  the  South  Bend 
Free  Press,  ever  since  I  returned  from  Indianapolis,  and 
will  continue  at  it  until  after  the  election.  It  is  done 
secretly.  The  Locos  suspect  it,  and  hate  me  cordially  ;  but 
I  have  a  host  of  Whig  friends.  I  tell  you,  my  dear  uncle, 
without  egotism,  the  name  you  and  I  bear  is  not  entirely 
unknown  in  Northern  Indiana  ;  and  if  an  honorable  ambi- 
tion will  serve,  it  will  yet  be  known  and  hated  by  more 
Locos  even  than  now.  It  was  rather  complimentary  to  be 
appointed,  as  I  was  at  our  late  Congressional  Convention, 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions.  I  imagined  it 
would  please  you,  and  so  sent  you  a  paper  containing  the 
resolutions  which  I  reported,  and  which,  you  will  see,  are 
of  the  most  ultra  character  ;  for  I  am  an  uncompromising 
Whig — Whig  all  over.  It  was  unusual  to  put  a  boy  of 
twenty  in  such  a  place,  or  even  to  send  him  as  delegate  to 
such  a  convention,  and  therefore  I  was  the  more  pleased 
and  proud.  I  send  you  to-day's  paper,  containing  my  edi- 
torials, and  I  should  like  to  know  if  u  they  meet  your  ap- 
proval." 

In  December,  1843,  he  writes  again  from  Indianapolis  : 
"  It  is  considered  rather  an  honorable  and  trustworthy  posi- 
tion [Senate  Reporter],  and  because  of  the  facilities  it  gives 
me  to  obtain  a  knowledge  of  the  world,  of  State  affairs,  and 
to  become  acquainted  with  the  leading  men  of  the  State,  I 
am  here  again,  as  last  winter."  In  February,  1844,  he 
wrote  Miss  Clark  :  "  I  should  have  been  a  lawyer  long 
ere  this,  but  my  volatile  mind,  my  penchant  for  politics, 
and  my  distaste  for  legal  studies  have  combined  to  make 
me  avoid  law-books  whenever  I  could  find  an  excuse.  I 
am  not  lazy,  or  indolent,  either.  In  the  Auditor's  office  I 
often  write  twelve  to  fifteen  hours,  without  intermission, 
sometimes,  even  for  meals.  In  such  work  I  delight,  but 
law-books  I  dislike,  although  I  shall  continue  to  try  to  over- 
come it."  Summing  himself  up,  he  says  :  "  I  have  a  pretty 
good  though  small  library  ;  I  own  half  of  a  very  good 
house,  which  the  '  Squire  '  [Mr.  Matthews]  and  I  live  in, 
and  I  have  half  paid  for  ;  I  own  a  house  and  lot  in  New 


38  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Carlisle,  and  I  have  a  little  property  in  New  Jersey  yet, 
but  not  much.  You  see  I  am  not  rich.  I  tell  you  my  cir- 
cumstances and  my  indisposition  to  study,  because  I  think 
it  would  be  wrong  to  conceal  it  from  you.  I  don't  know 
that  I  shall  ever  be  more  able  to  support  a  wife  than  I  am 
now.  Although  my  frame  is  light  and  my  constitution 
weak,  my  health  is  as  good  as  it  ever  was,  and  I  can  wear 
out  most  men  at  desk- work." 

He  had  figured  prominently  for  one  so  young  in  the 
State  conventions  of  the  winter.  Called  on  for  a  speech  at 
one  of  them,  he  made  a  "  spurt  "  which  was  heartily  ap- 
plauded, "  but  of  which  I  cannot  recollect  a  word  that  I 
said."  Three  fourths  of  all  the  Whig  voters  of  the  county 
attended  the  county  convention  in  March,  1844.  "  I  was 
Secretary,  and  'am  also  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
Clay  Club.  Clay  will  carry  the  State  gloriously."  He 
attended  the  great  Tippecanoe  convention  of  May  29th, 
"  to  help  shout  for  Henry  Clay,"  and  had  the  honor  of 
being  called  on  to  address  a  very  large  assemblage  at 
Lafayette  the  evening  before.  September  ist  he  started 
East,  calling  at  "  Clark  Hall,"  en  route,  and  arriving  in 
New  York  about  the  middle  of  the  month.  The  Presi- 
dential canvass  was  at  its  height,  and  he  was  waited  on  by 
a  committee,  and  asked  to  speak.  He  declined,  because, 
he  says,  he  was  "  thinking  more  of  the  ides  of  October 
[he  was  to  be  married  October  loth]  than  of  the  ides  of 
November."  But  he  addressed  the  Pompton  Plains  Clay 
Club,  September  23d,  "  in  the  very  home  of  my  ancestors, 
with  an  aged  uncle  as  president  of  the  club.  A  large  meet- 
ing had  convened,  anxious  to  hear  the  Hoosier  offshoot  of 
the  Colfax  family.  I  spoke  an  hour,  and  I  guess  they  were 
satisfied.  Last  evening,  26th,  the  Whigs  had  a  monster 
meeting  in  front  of  National  Hall  [New  York  City],  twenty 
thousand  people  present,  and  ten  stands  for  speaking — all 
going  full  blast.  I  followed  Greeley  at  one,  and  as  soon 
as  I  got  through  was  sent  to  another,  where  I  tried  to  get 
off  with  fifteen  minutes,  but  was  compelled  to  go  on  for  an 
hour,  although  hoarse  and  tired  out."  That  at  his  age  he 
should  be  called  on  to  speak  at  political  meetings  wherever 


CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH.  39 

he  chanced  to  be,  whether  in  the  capital  of  his  own  State, 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  or  elsewhere,  shows  an  admirable 
facility  for  political  speaking  on  his  part. 

The  last  of  his  bachelor  fun  was  the  organization,  in 
connection  with  five  or  six  of  his  old  boy  friends  in  New 
York,  of  "The  Potato  Club,"  for  the  encouragement  of 
matrimony.  "  Potato"  was  the  secret  sign  and  watch- 
word ;  a  potato  adorned  the  head  of  the  table  at  their  meet- 
ings ;  and  they  addressed  one  another  as  "  Brother  Potato 
Brown"  or  "  Wilson."  When  one  of  the  Potatoes  married, 
he  was  to  notify  the  brother  Potatoes,  who  were  to  meet 
and  dine  together,  and  drink  the  health  of  their  Benedict 
Potato,  and  send  him  official  notice  of  the  proceedings  and 
toasts.  The  Potato  who  should  be  last  married  was  to 
convene  the  Potatoes,  with  their  wives  and  little  Potatoes, 
and  at  his  own  expense  dine  and  wine  them  all.  They 
got  a  good  deal  of  fun  out  of  it,  but  whether  the  constitu- 
tion was  observed  to  the  last  particular,  the  historian  can- 
not say. 

On  the  roth  of  October  (1844)  he  and  Miss  Clark  were 
married,  and  immediately  set  out  for  the  West,  arriving  at 
Saratoga  the  same  evening.  Here  he  was  waited  on  by  the 
inevitable  committee,  and  invited  to  address  a  Clay  club. 
He  desired  to  be  excused,  since  it  was  his  wedding  day  ; 
but  they  insisted,  and  he  finally  consented.  The  bride  had 
long  been  loved  by  Mrs.  Matthews  as  a  daughter,  and  it 
was  a  happy  marriage.  They  first  lived  in  the  house 
jointly  owned  by  Mr.  Colfax  and  Mr.  Matthews,  at  No.  138 
Michigan  Street,  South  Bend,  now  No.  416,  North.  Within 
a  year  or  two,  however,  he  built  a  house  at  No.  211  West 
Water  Street.  The  entire  place  cost  the  young  couple  less 
than  six  hundred  dollars,  and  their  (cash)  housekeeping 
expenses  the  first  year  were  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
dollars. 


CHAPTER   II. 
EDITOR. 

1844-1855. 

FOUNDS  THE  ST.  JOSEPH  VALLEY  REGISTER. — SECRETARY  OF  THE 
CHICAGO  HARBOR  AND  RIVER  CONVENTION. — DELEGATE  TO  THE 
WHIG  NATIONAL  CONVENTION  OF  1848. — THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION 
FROM  THE  TIME  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION. — YOUNGEST  GRAND  REP- 
RESENTATIVE OF  THE  ODD  FELLOWS. — MAKES  His  MARK  IN  THE 
STATE  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION  OF  1850.— JOINT  CANVASS  WITH 
DR.  FITCH  FOR  CONGRESS. — CARRIES  THE  REBEKAH  DEGREE  IN  THE 
GRAND  LODGE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. — DELEGATE- AT-LARGE  TO 
THE  WHIG  NATIONAL  CONVENTION  OF  1852.  —  APPEALS  TO  THE 
PEOPLE  FROM  THE  REPEAL  OF  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE. — ACTIVE 
IN  FORMING  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY. — ELECTED  TO  CONGRESS  OVER 
DR.  EDDY. — DELEGATE  TO  THE  NATIONAL  KNOW-NOTHING  COUNCIL 
OF  1855. — BUT  NEVER  A  KNOW-NOTHING. 

IN  September,  1845,  Schuyler  Colfax  and  A.  W.  West 
bought  the  South  Betid  Free  Press  of  W.  and  J.  Millikan, 
and  commenced  its  publication  as  the  St.  Joseph  Valley 
Register,  Schuyler  Colfax  editor.  He  announced  that  in 
politics  the  Register  would  be  inflexibly  Whig.  As  to  the 
State  debt,  it  would  advocate  honesty.  It  would  take 
moderate  ground  with  respect  to  slavery,  alike  opposed  to 
Calhounism  and  Birneyism.  A  reasonable  amount  of  space 
would  be  devoted  to  agriculture  and  education,  and  the 
latest  news  furnished.  Many  years  afterward,  in  apology 
for  the  publication  of  news  of  a  broad  nature  from  Utah, 
which  it  seemed  necessary  to  publish,  the  editor  said  : 
"  We  try  to  exclude  from  the  Register,  so  far  as  we  can, 
the  recital  of  bloody  murders,  of  shameless  crimes,  of 
horrid  executions,  and  all  else  that  panders  to  a  vitiated 
mind."  The  paper  was  uniformly  courteous  and  moderate 
in  tone.  It  excluded  religious  discussion,  while  supporting 


EDITOR.  41 

every  good  cause.  Its  editor  was  regarded  as  a  strong 
writer  and  partisan,  and  was  welcomed  as  an  important 
accession  to  the  editorial  fraternity.  South  Bend  had. 
perhaps,  fifteen  hundred  inhabitants,  St.  Joseph  County 
ten  thousand.  The  paper  quadrupled  its  subscription  list 
in  a  few  years,  and  doubled  its  annual  profits.  These, 
however,  did  not  average  quite  one  hundred  dollars  per 
month  for  the  first  twelve  years.  The  young  man  com- 
puted his  possessions  when  he  bought  into  the  paper  at 
sixteen  hundred  dollars  ;  but  about  half  of  it  was  invested 
in  an  oil-mill  with  Mr.  Matthews,  and  by  reason  of  the 
change  made  in  the  tariff  in  1846,  became  a  total  loss. 
In  December  the  establishment  took  up  its  quarters  in  the 
second  story  of  Listen's  new  brick  block  on  Michigan 
Street,  and  early  in  1846  Colfax  bought  out  his  partner. 
He  continued  to  serve  as  Deputy-Auditor,  and  was  ap- 
pointed on  the  Whig  State  committee  for  the  county.  We 
hear  no  more  about  his  studying  law.1  He  was  never  ad- 
mitted to  the  Bar.  His  triumphs  were  to  be  won  in 
another  field.  He  had  "  pettifogged,"  as  he  termed  it,  a 
few  cases  while  in  his  teens  ;  but,  as  he  wrote,  "  they  were 
mere  frolics,  undertaken  to  accommodate  a  friend  or 
scorch  an  opponent."  In  spite  of  all  precautions,  he  was 
now  launched  for  a  political  voyage  of  forty  years. 

A  religious  revival  occurred  in  the  town  and  county 
in  the  early  months  of  1846.  All  the  denominations  held 
"  protracted  meetings."  Under  the  Rev.  John  T.  Avery's 
ministration  numbers  joined  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
Coming  home  one  evening,  Colfax  said  to  his  mother  : 
"  Where  is  Evelyn  ?  Off  to  that  revival  meeting  again, 
I  suppose."  The  question  and  what  it  implied  brought 
tears  into  his  mother's  eyes.  He  besought  her  forgive- 
ness, began  to  attend  the  meetings  himself,  and  soon 
afterward,  with  his  wife,  united  with  the  church.  At  a 
later  period  he,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Matthews,  and  others 
withdrew  from  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  founded  the 
First  Reformed  Church  of  South  Bend. 

1.  He  was  elected  an  honorary  member  of  the  St.  Joseph  Bar  Association  in  1877, 
with  Morton,  Raymond,  Pratt,  Calkins,  McDonald,  Noyes,  and  others. 


42  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

The  editor  of  the  Register  was  a  delegate  from  his  county 
to  the  Chicago  Harbor  and  River  Convention  of  July, 
1847,  a  gathering  of  leading  Whigs  and  liberal  Democrats, 
particularly  of  the  West,  for  the  purpose  of  considering 
the  constitutional  power  of  Congress  to  appropriate  money 
in  aid  of  internal  improvements,  and  of  developing  and 
strengthening  popular  sentiment  in  favor  of  such  appropri- 
ations. So  far  as  numbers  and  enthusiasm  were  con- 
cerned, it  was  an  entire  success.  Nothing  like  it  had  then 
or  has  since  been  known  in  the  West.  Abraham  Lincoln, 
Edward  Bates,  Thomas  Corwin,  Horace  Greeley,  Robert 
C.  Schenck,  David  Dudley  Field,  Erastus  Corning,  Thomas 
Butler  King,  and  many  other  men  then  or  afterward  fa- 
mous, attended,  and  letters  were  read  from  such  leaders  as 
Henry  Clay,  Silas  Wright,  Washington  Hunt,  Martin  Van 
Buren,  and  Lewis  Cass,  the  latter  two,  however,  being 
decidedly  non-committal. 

The  convention  met  in  the  open  air,  and  when  perma- 
nently organized  Edward  Bates  was  Chairman.  He 
attracted  no  special  notice  until,  in  adjourning  the  session, 
his  closing  remarks  grew  into  a  magnificent  speech,  ad- 
mittedly the  best  of  the  entire  proceedings.  It  was  so  un- 
expected, and  it  so  enchanted  the  press  reporters,  that  they 
neglected  to  catch  the  eloquent  sentences  as  they  fell  from 
his  lips.  Colfax  wrote  his  wife  : 

"  I  have  been  unexpectedly  elected  to  the  responsible 
and  honorable  office  of  principal  Secretary  of  the  conven- 
tion. I  cannot  properly  leave  now  till  we  are  about 
through,  as  all  the  responsibility  of  keeping  the  proceed- 
ings devolves  upon  me.  The  town  is  swarming  with  peo- 
ple, delegates  and  strangers,  estimated  at  twelve  thou- 
sand." (The  population  of  Chicago  did  not  much  exceed 
this  ;  it  was  placed  at  from  twelve  thousand  to  sixteen 
thousand.)  "I  sleep  on  the  floor  at  the  boarding-house, 
and  the  boards  are  certainly  oak,  instead  of  poplar,  as  they 
should  be,  when  used  for  bedsteads." 

The  discussion  was  brilliant  and  exhaustive.  The 
resolutions,  unanimously  adopted,  affirmed  the  constitu- 
tionality of  Congressional  aid  to  internal  improvements, 


EDITOR.  43 

provided  these  affected  two  or  more  States.  A  resolution 
favoring  George  Wilkes's  project  for  a  railroad  to  Oregon 
was  laughed  out  of  the  convention,  and  one  declaring  the 
free  navigation  of  the  St.  Lawrence  a  matter  of  great  im- 
portance was  summarily  tabled.  This  assemblage  was  a 
great  event  in  its  day.  The  pleasing  address  and  business 
efficiency  of  the  principal  Secretary  secured  him  this 
prominent  position,  and  he  filled  it  with  credit.  He  heard 
many  of  the  foremost  men  of  the  time  in  debate  on  a 
constitutional  question,  and  he  made  their  personal 
acquaintance. 

The  Register  was  enlarged  by  one  fourth  as  it  entered 
upon  its  third  year.  Having  gone  to  the  State  capital 
in  November  as  a  candidate  for  Clerk  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  the  editor  writes  his  wife  :  "  I  am  satis- 
fied I  shall  get  more  Whig  votes  than  either  of  my  com- 
petitors ;  but  Ward,  the  old  Clerk,  last  year  got  elected 
in  a  similar  state  of  affairs  by  the  whole  body  of  the  Locos 
going  for  him  on  condition  that  his  friends  should,  as  they 
did,  elect  a  Loco  Assistant  Clerk.  Such  a  combination 
this  year  would,  of  course,  sell  me  out,  for  I  would  scorn, 
if  such  a  proposition  was  made  to  me,  to  accept  it,  if  it 
were  the  best  office  in  the  world."  And  again,  a  week 
later:  "I  am  beaten,  as  I  expected  I  would  be,  by  bar- 
gains which  I  would  not  descend  to,  though  I  have  run  an 
honorable  poll,  and  stood  at  the  head  of  the  list  on  the 
first  ballot."  Upon  this  occasion  his  friend  Stanfield1 
writes  him  :  "  Last  Saturday  evening  I  visited  Mrs.  Colfax 
to  sympathize  with  her  in  your  unsuccess  (I  don't  consider 
it  a  defeat).  I  told  her  I  would  rather  see  you  right  than 
Clerk,  and  she  would  too.  She  considers  it  a  triumph  of 
honor  and  integrity  over  temptation.  Schuyler,  it  is 
above  calculation  to  have  a  wife  that  can  appreciate  these 
things."  He  engaged  as  reporter  for  the  Indiana  Slate 
Journal,  as  in  former  winters,  but  the  small- pox  appearing 

1.  Judge  Thomas  S.  Stanfield,  of  South  Bend,  was  a  few  years  older  than  Colfax,  a 
lawyer,  a  Whig,  and  afterward  a  Eepublican.  He  represented  the  district  in  the  Legisla- 
ture once  or  twice  ;  was  defeated  for  Lieutenant-Governor,  but  served  with  distinction 
on  the  Bench.  He  was  of  a  generous  and  gentle  nature,  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him. 
He  died  in  1885,  after  a  long  and  remarkably  unselfish  and  useful  life. 


44  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

in  the  city,  the  Legislature  adjourned  sine  die  in  a  panic. 
"  Esquire  Miller  is  not  well,"  he  writes  his  wife,  "  and  the 
fatigue  of  the  journey  [home]  may  make  him  sick.  If  so, 
and  he  is  left  alone  on  the  road,  coming  from  a  city  where 
small-pox  is  raging,  he  would  probably  be  left  unattended, 
if  not  turned  out  into  a  hovel  to  die.  I  could  not  leave 
him  in  such  a  situation,  and  hence  this  letter." 

While  he  was  at  Indianapolis  the  Tippecanoe  Journal, 
published  at  Lafayette,  was  offered  for  sale.  Lafayette 
was  a  larger  and  more  prosperous  town  than  South  Bend, 
and  the  Journal  was  doing  twice  the  business  of  the 
Register.  Mr.  Colfax  was  urged  to  purchase  the  paper,  and 
was  tendered  any  needed  assistance.  "  After  looking  at 
the  profit  and  the  riches  in  view/'  he  writes,  "  there  comes 
up  such  a  feeling  of  attachment  to  South  Bend,  such  an 
unwillingness  to  remove  from  the  circle  of  friends  and 
acquaintances  around  me  in  St.  Joseph  County,  that  I  can 
hardly  hope  that  you  will  advise  me  to  do  it.  If  you 
are  satisfied  with  the  little  more  than  a  living  we  can 
make  at  South  Bend,  or  would  prefer  that  to  a  larger  in- 
come purchased  by  the  disruption  of  family  ties,  I  shall 
be  contented  to  dismiss  the  matter  from  my  thoughts." 
At  another  time  he  writes  :  "  Caleb  B.  Smith  wishes 
Defrees  and  me  to  join  him  and  buy  the  Cincinnati  Gazette, 
price  sixty  thousand  dollars,  making  twenty  thousand  a 
year.  You  know  what  my  answer  is." 

In  May,  1848,  Defrees  sent  him  his  credentials  as  dele- 
gate to  the  Whig  National  Convention.  The  Whigs,  espe- 
cially in  Indiana,  were  in  great  perplexity  as  to  whom  to 
nominate  Mr.  Defrees  writes  the  young  delegate  that  he 
favors  Judge  McLean,  believing  that  Henry  Clay  cannot 
be  elected,  and  that  General  Zachary  Taylor  ought  not  to 
be,  because  he  will  not  pledge  himself  to  carry  out  Whig 
principles  if  elected.  Mr.  Godlove  S.  Orth,  of  Lafayette, 
agrees  with  Defrees  as  to  these  candidates  ;  opposes 
Thomas  Corwin  because  his  speech  against  the  Mexican 
war  had  impaired  his  availability  ;  rejects  Messrs.  Crit- 
tenden,  Clayton,  Badger,  and  Seward  as  out  of  the  ques- 
tion, and  Judge  McLean  as  too  far  from  the  people.  He 


EDITOR.  45 

decides  emphatically  for  General  Winfield  Scott.  Mr. 
Stanfield  writes  that  he  "loves  Old  Harry,  but  he  can- 
not be  elected.  The  people  don't  know  McLean.  Scott 
will  do,  but  I  have  no  doubt  that  *  Old  Rough  and 
Ready '  [Taylor]  is  the  most  available  man  that  can 
be  nominated.  I  have  confidence  in  your  judgment,  and 
I  know  your  notions  are  right  ;  so  do  just  what  you  think 
best,  after  reflection  upon  all  the  opinions  you  can  pick  up 
from  different  parts  of  the  Union."  Horace  Greeley  writes 
him  :  "  Clay  is  the  man  who  ought  to  be  President.  We 
cannot,  with  any  decency,  support  Taylor.  I  would  prefer ^ 
to  split  and  run  a  Northern  man,  with  the  certainty  of 
defeat,  rather  than  support  Taylor.  If  Clay  should  not  be 
nominated,  I  should  prefer  Corwin  next,  but  will  probably 
support  McLean,  who  is  capable,  moderate,  and  available. 
I  am  afraid,  however,  that 'Scott  will  be  nominated  if  Clay 
is  not.  I  cannot  bear  the  thought  of  Taylor."  These  and 
many  similar  letters  to  the  young  delegate  indicate  the 
nature  and  extent  of  the  trust  which  his  associates  thus 
early  reposed  in  his  political  judgment. 

Looking  back  upon  those  times,  there  seems  to  have 
been  but  little  heart  in  their  politics.  In  the  early  days 
of  the  Whig  Party  there  was  substance  in  their  contention 
for  a  high  tariff,  for  internal  improvements  by  the  National 
Government,  for  the  re-chartering  of  the  United  States 
Bank.  In  1840  there  was  nothing  left  in  Whig  politics  but 
the  distress  of  the  country  at  the  end  of  twelve  years  of 
Jackson  and  Van  Buren.  That  was  sufficient  to  place  the 
Whigs  in  power ;  but  their  President,  General  William 
Henry  Harrison,  dying,  and  their  Vice-President,  John 
Tyler,  apostatizing,  all  Whig  measures  were  successively 
vetoed,  and  no  more  was  heard  of  them  until  the  slave- 
holders' rebellion  necessitated  a  government  at  Washing- 
ton, when  they  were  resuscitated  and  made  the  established 
policy.  Horace  Greeley  was  wont  to  say  that  the  Whig 
Party  was  the  main  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  triumph  of 
Whig  principles.  Certainly,  they  triumphed  only  after  the 
Whig  Party,  as  a  party,  was  no  more.  A  new  issue,  or 
an  old  issue  in  a  new  form,  intimately  connected  with  the 


46  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

organization  and  development  of  the  nation,  and  threaten- 
ing an  even  more  potent  influence  in  moulding  its  future, 
was  fast  taking  the  place  of  all  other  political  issues. 

Negro  slavery  was  entailed  on  the  New  World  by 
Europe.  It  was  a  count  in  Jefferson's  original  draft  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  that  King  George  had  pre- 
vented the  Colonies  from  inhibiting  the  importation  of 
negro  slaves  from  Africa.  The  years  of  discussion  which 
preceded  the  War  of  Independence,  as  has  been  said,  went 
to  the  foundation  of  the  rights  of  man,  and  our  fathers  did 
not  fail  to  see  that  their  reasoning  condemned  negro  slav- 
ery equally  with  white  slavery.  It  was  the  merest  acci- 
dent that  the  evil  was  not  restricted  within  its  existing 
limits  before  the  Constitution  was  made  and  adopted. 
The  Colonies  occupied  a  narrow  belt  on  the  Atlantic  coast, 
extending  from  the  Penobscot,  in  Maine,  to  the  Altamaha, 
in  Georgia.  All  of  them  except  Massachusetts  were  slave- 
holding  ;  yet  the  climate  and  productions  of  the  South 
being  the  better  adapted  to  slave  labor,  the  mass  of  the 
three  hundred  thousand  to  five  hundred  thousand  slaves 
in  the  entire  country  was  in  the  South.  The  war  had  left 
the  Colonies  impoverished  and  in  debt.  Part  of  them  had 
assets  in  territory  extending  beyond  their  actual  limits  to 
the  Mississippi  River,  while  part  had  no  share  in  this  ter- 
ritory, now  deemed,  and  justly,  to  have  been  won  by  the 
common  effort.  This  soon  became  cause  of  bickering  ;  and 
the  Continental  Congress  proposed  that  these  Western 
lands  be  ceded  to  the  Confederation.  Virginia,  New 
York,  Connecticut,  and  Massachusetts  having  already  acted 
on  this  suggestion,  and  North  Carolina  and  Georgia  being 
expected  soon  to  act,  a  committee  was  appointed  in  1784, 
of  which  Jefferson  was  chairman,  to  draft  an  Ordinance 
for  the  government  of  the  territory  ceded,  and  to  be  ceded, 
the  latter  comprising  the  present  States  of  Tennessee, 
Alabama,  and  Mississippi. 

The  Ordinance  proposed  to  forever  exclude  slavery  from 
all  this  territory  ;  but  it  required  a  majority  of  the  States, 
seven,  to  adopt  the  Ordinance.1  New  Hampshire,  Massa- 

1.  Each  State  was  represented  by  two  delegates,  and  it  required  both  of  the  delegates 


EDITOR.  47 

chusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  and 
Pennsylvania,  six  only,  voted  Aye.  Delaware  was  absent, 
and  New  Jersey  had  not  a  quorum  present.  Both  would 
have  voted  Aye,  had  they  voted  at  all  ;  but  it  was  not  to 
be.  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia  voted  No, 
and  North  Carolina  was  divided.  So  the  restriction  of 
slavery  failed,  although  of  the  delegates  present  sixteen 
out  of  twenty-three  voted  Aye.  Three  years  later  a  sim- 
ilar Ordinance  was  unanimously  adopted  with  respect  to 
the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio  River,  that  south  of  the 
Ohio  not  yet  having  been  ceded.  When  North  Carolina 
and  Georgia  ceded  their  territory,  they  stipulated  that 
Congress  should  not  abolish  or  restrict  slavery  therein. 

The  same  men  who  thus  endeavored  to  set  bounds  to 
slavery  under  the  Confederation  formed  the  Constitution, 
and  purposely  avoided  mentioning  slavery  in  that  instru- 
ment. Although  cotton  was  not  yet  king,  slaves  were  em- 
ployed in  the  cultivation  of  rice  and  indigo  on  the  coasts 
of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  and  it  was  regarded  as 
doubtful  whether  agriculture  could  be  carried  on  in  that 
region  without  slaves.  The  formation  of  a  more  perfect 
union,  by  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  was  an  abso- 
lute necessity,  and  it  could  not  be  accomplished  without 
concessions  to  the  slave-holding  interest.  So  it  was  agreed 
that  the  importation  of  slaves  should  not  be  stopped  for 
twenty  years  ;  that  fugitives  from  labor  should  be  re- 
turned, or,  at  least,  delivered  up  on  requisition  of  the  party 
claiming  the  right  to  their  labor  ;  and  that  five  slaves  should 
count  as  three  free  men  in  the  apportionment  for  represen- 
tation in  the  Lower  House  of  Congress.  Slavery,  it  was  be- 
lieved, would  not  long  survive  the  suppression  of  the  im- 
portation of  slaves  ;  and,  perhaps,  it  would  not,  if  circum- 
stances had  not  combined  to  make  the  growth  of  the  cotton 
plant  one  of  the  most  important  industries  of  the  world. 

When  the  Constitution  was  adopted,  it  became  the 
supreme  law  and  bond  of  union  between  twelve  slave 
States  and  one  free  State — Massachusetts  had  adopted 

to  make  a  quorum  or  to  cast  the  vote  of  the  State.  The  vote  was  not  by  delegates,  but 
by  States. 


48  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

a  Bill  of  Rights,  which  her  Supreme  Court  declared  abol- 
ished slavery — each  State  having  the  conceded  right  to 
retain  or  abolish  slavery  as  it  pleased.  Six  of  these  States 
soon  placed  slavery  in  the  way  of  ultimate  extinction  ;  the 
others  did  not.  Congress  began  at  once  to  admit  new 
States  :  Vermont,  territory  relinquished  by  New  York 
and  New  Hampshire,  and  Kentucky,  segregated  from  Vir- 
ginia, and  already  a  slave-holding  Territory  ;  Ohio  and 
Tennessee,  the  latter  ceded  by  North  Carolina,  with  the 
continuation  of  slavery  as  a  condition  ;  Louisiana,  where 
slavery  existed  when  Louisiana  was  purchased  of  the 
French  by  President  Jefferson,  and  soon  afterward  Indiana  ; 
Mississippi,  ceded  by  Georgia,  with  slavery,  and  Illinois  ; 
Alabama,  ceded  by  Georgia,  with  slavery,  and  Maine,  re- 
linquished by  Massachusetts  :  in  pairs,  and  by  general 
consent,  their  status,  respectively,  having  been  fixed  by 
agencies  outside  of  the  Constitution,  though  the  first  Con- 
gress under  that  instrument  ratified  the  Ordinance  of  1787. 
In  1818  that  part  of  the  Louisiana  purchase  which  is 
now  the  State  of  Missouri  applied  to  Congress  for  an 
Enabling  Act.  Upon  this  the  question  of  the  restriction 
of  slavery  came  to  life  again.  Missouri  was  north  of  the 
line  which  the  North  had  understood  was  to  circumscribe 
the  extension  of  slavery  northward.  Machinery,  applied  to 
the  manipulation  of  cotton,  and  the  boundless  field  acquired 
for  its  culture,  had  quietly  wrought  a  revolution  in  the 
South,  which  was  now  prompted  by  interest  to  extend 
slavery,  while  the  North  was  moved  by  conviction  to  re- 
strict it.  Daniel  Webster  said  that  so  far  the  Republic  was 
not  responsible  for  slavery  ;  but  that  it  would  be  if  Missouri 
should  be  admitted  into  the  Union  with  slavery.  In  the 
struggle  that  ensued  the  North  sought  to  provide  that  no 
more  slaves  should  be  taken  into  Missouri,  and  that  slave 
children  born  there  should  become  free  at  twenty-five.  The 
South  demanded  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave 
State.  The  strength  of  the  North  was  in  the  House  ;  of 
the  South  in  the  Senate.  After  two  years  of  parliamentary 
conflict,  enough  Northern  votes  were  secured  for  the  ad- 
mission of  Missouri,  with  slavery,  by  a  proposition,  brought 


EDITOR.  49 

forward  by  the  Southerners,  that  in  consideration  therefor 
slavery  should  be  forever  prohibited  north  of  the  line  of 
36°  30',  the  southern  boundary  line  of  Missouri. 

Ten  years  after  this  there  was  no  ill-feeling  on  this 
question  between  North  and  South,  and  a  determined  effort 
was  made  in  a  Virginia  constitutional  convention  so  to  base 
representation  as  to  place  the  political  power  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  were  favorable  to  emancipation.  The  sup- 
pression of  slave  importation  in  1807,  the  growing  demand 
for  slaves  to  work  the  new  industry  and  the  new  territory, 
had  made  the  people  of  the  border  slave  States  slave-breed- 
ers, and  created  the  domestic  slave  trade.  A  slave  baby 
was  now  worth  a  hundred  dollars  as  soon  as  born,  while 
field  hands  brought  one  thousand  to  two  thousand  dollars 
each,  according  to  the  price  of  cotton.  But  for  this  unique 
business,  slavery  would  doubtless  have  passed  away  from 
Virginia  and  all  the  border  slave  States  prior  to  1830. 

Benjamin  Lundy  began  to  agitate  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  1815,  travelling  through  the  States  from  Ohio  to 
the  Gulf,  organizing  emancipation  societies,  endeavoring 
to  encourage  colonization,  and  publishing  a  paper.  William 
Lloyd  Garrison  took  up  the  work  in  1830,  founding  the 
Liberator,  and  making  war  on  slavery,  neither  giving  nor 
asking  quarter.  Others  joined  him — Francis  P.  Jackson, 
Lewis  and  Arthur  Tappan,  Nathaniel  P.  Rogers,  William 
Goodell,  Gerrit  Smith,  Elijah  Parrish  Lovejoy,  James  G. 
Birney,  Wendell  Phillips,  Theodore  Parker — men  of  a 
single  purpose  and  extraordinary  force  and  persistency  of 
character.  Public  sentiment  in  the  North  discountenanced 
the  more  extreme  Abolitionists,  acknowledging  and  de- 
fending the  rights  of  the  slave  States  in  that  connection, 
so  far  as  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution.  President 
Jackson  called  attention  to  them  as  "atheists  and  incen- 
diaries," and  in  some  of  the  free  States  futile  attempts 
were  made  to  suppress  discussion  ;  but  mob  violence  sup- 
pressed it  for  a  season.  Lovejoy's  press  was  destroyed  the 
fourth  time,  and  he  at  last  shot  dead,  at  Alton,  111. 
Garrison  was  forced  to  secrete  himself,  was  mobbed  in 
Boston,  and  narrowly  escaped  assassination.  In  the  South 


50  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

the  mails  were  robbed  by  the  postmasters  with  impunity, 
and  men  who  uttered  Abolition  sentiments  were  expelled  or 
hanged  by  mobs. 

No  sooner  was  the  line  of  36°  30'  established  than  the 
Southern  leaders  began  to  look  with  uneasiness  on  the 
territory  lying  north  of  it  and  stretching  away  to  the 
Pacific,  forever  dedicated  to  freedom  by  solemn  compact  ; 
and  the  corresponding  belt  lying  south  of  it  not  open  to 
slavery,  because  owned  by  Mexico.  As  if  by  instinct,  a 
straggling  emigration,  mainly  from  the  slave  States,  set 
out  for  Texas.  This  vast  region  was  almost  uninhabited, 
and  the  emigrants  were  soon  strong  enough  to  wrest  it 
from  the  feeble  power  of  Mexico,  and  hold  it  in  a  sort  of 
independence,  while  the  slave  interest  in  the  United  States 
intrigued  and  manoeuvred  for  its  annexation,  which  was 
finally  accomplished  in  1845.  The  line  of  36°  30'  was 
applied  to  the  new  State,  although  it  barely  touched  its 
northern  extremity,  and  the  right  reserved  by  Congress  of 
ultimately  making,  with  the  consent  of  Texas,  four  addi- 
tional States  out  of  its  territory,  but  with  the  power  to 
either  retain  or  prohibit  slavery  in  them. 

Meanwhile  Arkansas  and  Michigan  had  been  admitted 
into  the  Union  ;  also  Iowa  and  Florida — the  latter  having 
been  purchased  of  Spain  in  1818  ;  and  Wisconsin,  to  match 
Texas — always  in  pairs — a  free  State  against  a  slave  State. 
Thus  eight  free  States  had  been  admitted  and  nine  slave 
States  ;  and  counting  the  original  States  six  free  and  six 
slave,  with  Massachusetts  free  when  the  Constitution  was 
adopted,  there  were  now  thirty  States,  half  of  them  free, 
half  of  them  slave,  when,  over  a  question  of  boundary, 
war  was  brought  on  with  Mexico  to  clear  the  way  of  the 
South  to  the  Pacific. 

While  this  war  was  in  progress,  a  proviso  to  a  resolution 
was  offered  in  Congress  by  David  Wilmot,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, that  slavery,  not  existing  in  Mexico,  should  not  be 
planted  in  territory  that  might  be  acquired  from  Mexico.1 
This  proposition  passed  the  House.  The  Register  of 
February  26th,  1847,  commented  :  "  True  to  the  impulses 

1.  Timothy  Jenkins,  of  New  York,  is  said  to  have  prepared  this  proviso. 


EDITOR.  5 1 

of  freedom,  the  popular  branch  of  Congress  has  by  this 
action  given  embodiment  and  form  to  that  public  opinion 
of  the  Northern  States  which  declares,  '  Not  another  inch 
of  slave  territory/  It  is,  indeed,  a  manly  stand.  It 
makes  the  pulse  of  those  who  hope  yet  to  see  the  day  when 
the  chain  of  human  bondage  shall  be  broken  beat  quicker 
and  more  gladly.  It  sounds  in  the  ears  of  those  who  prefer 
anarchy  and  dissolution  to  gradual  emancipation,  as  the 
knell  of  '  the  peculiar  institution.'  '  The  Wilmot  Proviso 
was  defeated  in  the  Senate  by  a  speech  made  for  that  pur- 
pose, the  session  being  near  its  close  when  the  matter 
came  up. 

The  war  with  Mexico  resulted  in  the  acquisition  by  the 
United  States  of  the  territory  now  known  as  California, 
Utah,  and  New  Mexico.  Rejecting  the  Wilmot  Proviso, 
the  Senate  voted  into  a  bill  a  provision  extending  the 
Missouri  Compromise  line  to  the  Pacific,  which  provision 
failed  of  adoption  in  the  House.  This  would  have  been  a 
sufficiently  equitable  division,  between  freedom  and  slavery, 
of  the  land  spoil  of  the  war.  But  freedom  claimed  it  all. 
The  North  was  unwilling,  as  in  the  case  of  Missouri,  to 
see  so  much  as  an  inch  of  free  soil  surrendered  to  slavery 
through  the  agency  of  the  Republic.  In  this  issue  there 
was  heart  enough.  The  editor  of  the  Register,  July  ;th, 
1848,  declared:  "As  one  Northern  Whig,  we  hold  that 
when  new  territory  comes  into  the  Union,  whether  slave 
or  free  previously,  it  should  come  in  unstained  by  slavery  ; 
and  that  the  bounds  of  our  present  slave  territory  should 
never,  under  any  circumstances,  be  extended  a  single  inch." 

The  contest  was  between  two  differing,  if  not  antago- 
nistic, forms  of  civilization,  yoked  together  in  the  course  of 
events,  each  seeking  expansion  and  dominion.  It  was 
roused  into  dangerous  activity  whenever,  by  the  applica- 
tion of  new  States  for  admission  into  the  Union,  or  by  the 
necessity  of  organizing  new  Territories,  the  equilibrium 
between  the  two  sections  was  threatened.  In  the  nature 
of  things  such  a  contest  could  be  finally  settled  only  by 
the  arbitrament  of  war.  Since  it  has  been  so  settled,  and 
settled  aright,  we  can  perhaps  afford  to  admit  that  slavery 


52  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

and  its  propagandism  were  the  misfortune  rather  than 
the  crime  of  the  old  South.  No  one  can  doubt  that 
reversing  the  conditions  of  North  and  South  would  have 
been  to  reverse  their  respective  parts. 

Elected  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  National  Conven- 
tion, the  young  delegate  from  Indiana  supported  Scott 
against  Clay,  Webster,  and  Taylor.  The  convention  was 
a  stormy  one.  A  large  section  of  the  party  favored  the 
Wilmot  Proviso.  General  Taylor  was  a  Southerner  and  a 
slaveholder,  and  while  classifying  himself  as  a  Whig,  he 
had  in  numerous  letters  refused  to  commit  himself  to  Whig 
principles.  At  the  same  time,  he  refrained  from  stating  his 
political  opinions,  and  seemed  desirous  of  running,  if  at 
all,  as  a  no-party  candidate.  A  resolution  was  introduced 
declaring  that  any  candidate,  to  entitle  himself  to  the 
Whig  nomination,  must  have  given  assurances  that  he 
would  accept  and  abide  by  the  nomination  ;  that  he  would 
consider  himself  the  candidate  of  the  Whigs,  and  would 
use  his  influence  to  bring  Whig  principles  into  operation. 
This  was  ruled  out  of  order  by  the  presiding  officer,  and 
an  appeal  being  taken,  the  appeal  was  laid  on  the  table, 
amid  the  greatest  tumult  and  confusion.  A  second  reso- 
lution of  the  same  purport  shared  the  same  fate. 

After  the  nomination  of  Taylor,  a  resolution  was  offered 
engaging  the  Whig  party  to  abide  by  the  nomination,  pro- 
vided General  Taylor  would  accept  it  as  a  Whig  nomi- 
nation, and  agree  to  adhere  to  fundamental  Whig  prin- 
ciples— "  no  extension  of  slave  territory  by  conquest,  pro- 
tection to  American  industry,  opposition  to  executive 
patronage."  The  end  of  the  resolution  was  not  permitted 
to  be  even  read.  A  resolution  was  then  offered  declaring 
the  nomination  of  Taylor  and  Fillmore  to  be  unanimous. 
Upon  a  motion  to  divide  this  resolution,  the  former 
tumultuous  scenes  were  re-enacted.  Mr.  Tilden,  of  Ohio, 
securing  the  floor,  offered  a  resolution  declaring  it  the 
duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  the  introduction  or  existence 
of  slavery  in  the  Territories  already  possessed,  or  that 
might  be  acquired,  by  the  United  States.  Amid  greater 
and  more  angry  excitement  than  ever,  this  resolution  was 


EDITOR.  53 

tabled,  and  to  head  off  the  introduction  of  further  reso- 
lutions, the  one  expressing  unanimous  concurrence  in  the 
nominations  was  withdrawn,  and  the  convention  adjourned 
without  any  platform  whatever,  the  Southerners  having 
thus  carried  their  point  that  General  Taylor  should  be 
taken  entirely  on  trust. 

There  was  great  dissatisfaction  ;  but  the  party  finally 
came  to  support  the  nomination,  or  at  least  the  people  did 
so,  and  General  Taylor,  being  genuinely  popular,  was 
elected  over  both  the  Democratic  and  the  Free-Soil  candi- 
dates.1 Although  Colfax  stood  with  the  Wilmot  Proviso 
men,  and  supported  Scott  for  the  nomination  to  the  last, 
he  engaged  in  the  canvass  with  all  his  energies,  writing, 
speaking,  managing,  contending  against  the  Democrats  on 
the  one  hand  and  against  the  Abolitionists  on  the  other. 

It  is  a  popular  notion  that  the  Abolitionists,  by  their 
agitation,  and  more  especially  by  their  independent  po- 
litical action,  brought  about  the  overthrow  of  slavery.  It 
was,  on  the  contrary,  the  extreme  partisans  of  the  "  pe- 
culiar institution"  who  did  this.  The  Abolitionists  gave 
James  G.  Birney,  of  Michigan,  nearly  7000  votes  for  Pres- 
ident in  1840,  and  the  Liberty  Party  gave  him  for  the  same 
office  about  65,000  votes  in  1844.  In  1848  the  Abolitionists 
and  Free-Soilers  polled  for  President  300,000  votes,  in  1852 
157,000  only  ;  but  the  mass  of  these  votes  were  cast  by 
Free-Soilers,  and  not  by  Abolitionists,  and  the  majority  of 
the  Northern  people  were  Free-Soilers  in  1818-20.  The 
abolition  of  slavery  was  a  purely  philanthropic  question. 
In  the  States  where  it  existed  it  was  protected  by  the  Con- 
stitution, and  whatever  their  feelings  or  opinions,  practical 
men  saw  no  way  to  its  abolition.  Its  restriction  was  a 
very  different  and  a  very  practical  issue. 

1.  General  Lewis  Case  was  the  Democratic  candidate  and  Martin  Van  Buren  the  Free- 
Soil  candidate.  Horace  Greeley  writes  Mr.  Colfax  in  September  :  "  I  am  going  to  vote 
for  Taylor— at  least,  I  think  I  am— and  I  am  not  clear  that  this  is  right.  If  I  could  make 
Van  Buren  President  to-morrow  I  would.  I  don't  like  the  man,  but  I  do  like  the  prin- 
ciples he  now  embodies— Free  Soil  and  Land  Beform-  And,  very  properly,  the  Free-Soil 
Party  is  the  only  live  party  around  us.  It  ought  to  triumph,  but  God  works  out  His  ends 
by  other  instruments  than  majorities  ;  wherefore  it  will  fail,  but  fail  gloriously.  You 
needn't  ask  me  to  do  any  more  than  I  am  doing  for  Taylor.  I  do  all  I  have  stomach 
for.  Let  him  whose  digestion  is  ranker  do  more." 


54  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

It  is  true,  the  Northern  people  were  defeated  in  1820  by 
the  desertion  of  a  few  of  their  Representatives  and  by  a 
legislative  agreement  to  forever  exclude  slavery  from  all 
territory  north  of  a  certain  line,  which  agreement  was 
afterward  repudiated.  They  were  defeated  in  the  annexa- 
tion of  Texas,  many  considerations  combining  to  render 
their  opposition  passive  rather  than  active.  In  the  struggle 
of  1850  they  were,  on  the  whole,  successful.  When,  in 
1854,  Kansas-Nebraska  was  thrown  open  to  slavery  in  de- 
fiance of  the  compact  of  1820,  as  well  as  in  disregard  of 
the  general  understanding  when  the  Constitution  was 
adopted,  the  restriction  of  slavery,  not  its  abolition,  was 
brought  prominently  forward  as  the  controlling  political 
issue,  and  a  great  Free-Soil  party  was  the  result. 

Still,  the  Northern  people  did  not  become  Abolitionists. 
It  required  the  impending  dismemberment  of  the  national 
domain  and  the  sharing  of  the  national  sovereignty  with 
an  antagonistic  power,  brought  about  by  secession  and 
rebellion,  to  make  a  bare  majorit)"  of  the  Northern  people 
Abolitionists.  But  for  the  steady  aggressions  of  the  slave 
power,  an  Abolitionist  would  still  be  detested,  South  and 
North,  as  he  was  fifty  years  ago.  In  the  decade  preceding 
1854  the  more  determined  Free-Soilers  were  a  troublesome 
element  in  the  politics  of  close  States  like  Indiana.  They 
usually  supported  candidates  of  their  own,  always  thereby 
throwing  their  votes  away,  generally  giving  them  in 
effect  to  the  party  least  favorable  to  their  views.  The 
animosity  of  the  two  great  parties  toward  each  other  was 
mild  compared  with  the  feeling  they  each  entertained  for 
the  4i  Free-Dirters,"  as  they  called  the  Free-Soilers. 

The  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Whig  Nominating  Con- 
vention of  the  Ninth  Congressional  District,  in  May,  1849, 
reported  by  Mr.  Colfax  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Resolutions,  fix  his  position,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Whig 
Party.  "  We  re-affirm,"  they  said,  "  our  attachment  to  the 
principles  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  as  declared  by  the  Whig 
Convention  of  two  years  ago  ;  we  renew  our  pledge  to  op- 
pose, in  all  constitutional  ways,  the  extension  of  the  slave 
territory  of  the  country  ;  we  demand  for  our  new  territory 


EDITOR.  55 

the  Ordinance  of  Freedom  (1787)  ;  and  we  instruct  our  can- 
didate for  Representative  to  insist  on  the  incorporation  of 
a  positive  prohibition  of  slavery  in  any  plan  for  its 
government." 

Fascinated  by  the  objects  and  work  of  the  Odd  Fellows, 
on  the  29th  day  of  March,  1846,  Mr.  Colfax  had  applied 
and  subsequently  been  admitted  a  member  of  South 
Bend  Lodge  No.  29.  He  had  passed  rapidly  through  the 
offices  necessary  to  qualify  him  for  a  seat  in  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  the  State  ;  had  been  elected  Representative  to  that 
body,  and  in  July,  1849,  was  at  Indianapolis  in  that 
capacity.  Rewrites  Mrs.  Coifax  :  "  It  may  surprise  you  to 
learn  that  I  am  elected  Grand  Representative  to  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  the  United  States  by  the  Grand  Encampment. 
It  surprised  me,  for  I  had  not  sought  it."  He  must  have 
been  greatly  pleased,  for  he  says  of  his  brethren  :  "  They 
are  a  fine-looking  body  of  men,  decidedly  more  intelligent 
in  the  aggregate  than  any  Legislature  I  have  ever  seen 
here."  In  September  he  attended  the  session  of  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  the  United  States,  the  youngest  man  ever  elected 
"  to  that  Senate  of  Odd  Fellowship,  in  which  he  at  once 
took  high  rank,  becoming  the  associate  and  friend  of 
Wildey,  Ridgely,  Stokes,  and  other  distinguished  brothers, 
who  have  gained  world-wide  fame  in  the  Fraternity.  For 
nearly  ten  years,  while  he  remained  a  Representative  in 
that  dignified  body,  he  wielded  a  magic  and  potent  influ- 
ence. With  instincts  at  once  humane  and  just,  with  a  fine 
presence,  a  musical  voice,  and  eloquent  utterance,  he  was 
usually  found  on  the  right  side  in  every  debate,  and  gener- 
ally carried  conviction  to  a  large  majority  of  his  fellow- 
members,  and  made  a  splendid  triumph  for  the  right."1  It 
was,  however,  the  next  year,  in  the  adjourned  session  at 
Cincinnati,  that  he  made  his  first  real  appearance,  con- 
tending, against  the  decision  of  the  Grand  Sire,  that 
receiving  credentials  not  being  considered  legislative  busi- 
ness, does  not  require  the  presence  of  a  quorum.  A  long 
debate  followed  his  speech,  in  which  he  sustained  himself 

1.  Grand  Secretary  Joseph  Kidder,  in  the  Manchester,  N.  H.,  Union,  after  Colfax's 
death. 


56  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

so  well  as  to  win  many  compliments ;  the  Grand  Sire  and 
the  Grand  Secretary,  both  disagreeing  with  him,  joining 
in  them.  Afterward  a  Representative,  deputed  by  a  number 
of  others,  waited  on  him  to  ascertain  if  he  would  serve  as 
Grand  Sire  if  elected.  He  replied  that  he  must  decline 
the  honor,  although  he  appreciated  the  compliment,  be- 
cause, among  other  reasons,  not  having  served  as  Grand 
Master  of  the  Order  in  his  State,  he  was  ineligible. 

The  people  of  Indiana  having  voted  to  revise  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  State,  the  Whigs  of  St.  Joseph  County  nomi- 
nated the  editor  of  the  Register  as  their  delegate  to  the  con- 
vention called  for  that  purpose.  He  hesitated,  preferring, 
as  he  said,  that  some  one  of  greater  experience  should  be 
chosen.  Judge  Sample,  ex-Member  of  Congress,  replied 
that  he  could  not  be  excused  ;  that  he  had  long  worked 
faithfully  in  the  ranks,  and  had  earned  promotion.  After  he 
had  been  nominated  by  the  townships  voting  separately, 
he  was  called  up  for  a  speech.  He  said  he  did  not  feel  at 
liberty  to  refuse  a  nomination  so  flatteringly  tendered  ;  re- 
ferred to  his  paper  for  his  views  on  revision  ;  said  he  depre- 
cated change,  except  where  experience  had  shown  it  to  be 
necessary,  and  believed  that  party  considerations  should 
have  no  place  in  the  business  from  beginning  to  end.  He 
afterward  issued  a  circular,  reiterating  the  points  in  which 
he  thought  the  organic  law  of  the  State  should  be  amended, 
concluding  :  "  It  should  be  a  constitution,  not  a  code  ;  a 
statement  of  governing  principles,  leaving  their  applica- 
tion to  the  Legislature."  Three  negative  propositions, 
he  held,  should  be  incorporated — no  slavery,  no  imprison- 
ment for  debt,  no  divorce  by  the  Legislature.  Beyond 
the  issue  of  this  circular  he  refrained  from  canvassing,  a 
modesty  he  was  obliged  to  forego  in  after  years.  He  was 
elected  by  an  unusual  majority.1 

The  convention  met  in  Indianapolis,  October  yth,  1850, 
and  was  four  months  doing  its  work.  It  was  two  thirds 
Democratic,  and  a  kind  of  mania  against  the  negro  pos- 

1.  Mr.  Greeley  wrote  him  :  "The  election  heing  over,  and  you  delegate-elect  to  a 
conBtitutional  convention,  I  suppose  I  may  be  permitted  to  congratulate  your  con- 
stituents. " 


EDITOR.  57 

sessed  the  country.  The  proceedings  were  stenographi- 
cally  reported  for  the  Indiana  State  Journal^  and  were  pub- 
lished in  book-form  by  the  State.  According  to  this  official 
record,  and  by  all  contemporary  accounts,  the  member 
from  St.  Joseph  performed  his  duties  in  a  very  creditable 
manner.  He  soon  took  rank  as  one  of  the  readiest  and 
most  animated  debaters  in  the  convention.  Every  prop- 
osition looking  toward  progress  and  reform  found  in  him 
an  earnest  and  able  advocate.  He  had  the  honor  of  pro- 
posing a  middle  course  with  respect  to  banking,  which  was 
adopted  by  a  large  majority,  after  a  long  and  tiresome 
wrestle  with  the  subject.  The  State  bankers  and  the  free 
bankers  were  so  evenly  divided,  that  the  men  opposed  to  all 
banking  were  able  to  prevent  any  action.  Colfax's  device 
simply  combined  the  best  features  of  both  systems. 

He  struggled  hard  for  homestead  exemption,  arguing 
that  it  would  injure  no  class,  but  would  benefit  the  cred- 
itor, the  debtor,  and  the  State.  The  present  law,  he  said, 
favored  the  creditor  with  the  hardest  heart,  the  smallest 
soul.  The  debt  to  the  family  was  higher  than  any  other, 
and  should  take  precedence.  Accidents  would  happen, 
prostrating  a  man,  the  rich  as  well  as  the  poor  ;  should  the 
law  then  step  in  and  finish  the  process  of  crushing  him, 
and  brand  him  as  a  knave  in  the  bargain  ?  It  was  the  first 
duty  of  such  a  body  as  the  convention  to  shield  the  poor  ; 
they  were  the  most  numerous  class  ;  our  main  support  in 
peace  or  war.  Homestead  exemption  would  benefit  the 
State  by  increasing  the  number  of  land-holders  and  at- 
tracting immigration.  States  should  shape  their  legisla- 
tion so  as  to  secure  to  man  a  sufficient  share  of  air,  water, 
and  earth  for  his  existence  and  support. 

He  concluded  : 

"  Mr.  President,  the  time  must  come,  sooner  or  later,  when  the  home 
shall  be  secure  ;  when  the  cabin  of  the  poor  man  shall  be  really  his  castle. 
The  time  must  come  when  the  writ  of  the  sheriff  shall  be  powerless  at  its 
threshold.  Then,  indeed,  will  it  be  truly  a  home.  Humble  though  it 
may  be,  it  may  be  the  place  to  which  its  owner  has  brought  his  bride 
from  the  paternal  roof  ;  it  may  be  the  birthplace  of  his  children  ;  and  in 
its  quiet  garden  may  repose  all  that  remains  of  some  of  them  who  have 
been  too  soon  transferred  to  a  securer  home  in  another  world.  Humble 


58  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

though  it  may  be,  the  tenderest  associations  cling  around  it,  and  their 
severance  is  like  snapping  the  heart-strings  of  life.  That  home,  to  which 
he  looks  during  his  days  of  toil  for  rest,  whose  inmates  around  the 
hearthstone  so  often  chase  away  the  cares  and  sorrows  which  may  cluster 
about  his  life,  must  be,  at  some  time  in  our  legislation,  if  not  now,  ren- 
dered secure  and  sacred.  And  when  that  is  done,  and  not  till  then,  will 
Indiana  have  done  her  part  in  hastening  the  coming  of  that  period  when, 
in  the  beautiful  language  of  Scripture,  every  man  can  sit  under  his  own 
vine  and  fig-tree,  with  none  to  molest  or  make  him  afraid." 

Political  resolutions  having  been  introduced,  reciting 
that  certain  misguided  persons  in  this  and  other  free  States 
had  expressed  their  determination  to  resist  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  Colfax  thought  they  were  out  of  place  in  the 
convention.  Still,  being  there,  he  proceeded  to  discuss 
them.  "  There  has  been  a  good  deal  said  and  a  great 
deal  of  indignation  levelled  at  certain  Northern  agitators, 
whom  the  resolutions,  as  introduced,  were  specially  in- 
tended to  denounce.  But  there  has  been  very  little  said 
about  Southern  agitators,  whose  action  imperils  the  Union, 
if  its  continuance  is  at  all  in  danger.  The  Union,  sir,  is 
in  no  danger  ;  but  if  its  preservation  is  threatened,  the 
treason  which  imperils  it  is  not  in  this  State,  or  in  this  part 
of  the  Union.  The  North  always  submits  to,  if  she  does 
not  indorse  or  approve,  the  legislation  of  Congress,  even 
when  it  is  most  repulsive  to  her  ;  and  instead  of  nullify- 
ing, the  North  seeks  only  to  rid  herself  of  the  operation  of 
unjust  and  oppressive  laws  by  constitutional  means."  He 
offered,  as  an  amendment,  resolutions  declaring  that  all 
laws  of  Congress  should  be  obeyed  ;  that  the  convention 
disapproves  of  the  treasonable  threats  made  by  Texas 
last  year  ;  sternly  denounces  the  action  of  South  Carolina 
in  imprisoning  citizens  of  other  States  and  expelling  with 
obloquy  the  agent  of  a  sister  State,  sent  to  contest  the  con- 
stitutionality of  such  proceedings  in  the  courts  ;  and  con- 
demns the  factious  course  of  Southern  agitators  who,  in  a 
Southern  convention,  within  one  month,  have  avowed  the 
most  treasonable  intentions,  openly  defying  the  national 
authority.  These  resolutions  were  tabled  by  a  vote  of  87 
to  39. 

Against  the  proposal  to  exclude  negroes  from  the  State, 


EDITOR.  59 

and  to  inhibit  their  employment,  and  their  holding  of 
property  in  the  State,  he  contended  with  all  his  power  as 
often  as  it  came  up.  For  thirty-four  years,  he  said,  we  had 
lived  and  prospered  under  a  constitution  which  declares 
that  all  men  shall  enjoy  the  right  of  acquiring  and  owning 
property.  Now,  after  this  long  period,  so  eventful  in 
human  progress,  it  was  proposed  to  declare,  by  solemn  con- 
stitutional provision,  that  one  class  of  men  shall  not  enjoy 
that  right.  He  said  : 

"  We  ask  here  no  extension  of  their  privileges,  but  we  ask  you  to 
treat  them  with  humanity,  and  not  to  crush  them  as  you  would  vermin 
out  of  your  sight.  But  if  you  will  not  do  this,  let  no  man  on  this  floor 
speak  of  the  cruelties  inflicted  on  the  race  in  the  Southern  States,  the 
slave  factories  of  the  African  coa,st,  or  the  horrors  of  '  the  middle  pas- 
sage.' Your  mouths  will  be  stopped,  the  utterance  of  your  condemnation 
checked,  for  by  your  own  solemn  and  deliberate  acts  you  declare  the 
negro  a  brute,  by  excluding  him  from  the  commonest,  the  poorest,  the 
humblest  privileges  of  human  beings — the  right  to  live  and  to  possess  the 
means  of  living,  purchased  by  the  sweat  of  his  toil.  Mr.  President,  do 
as  we  may  here,  our  action  is  not  final.  Sooner  or  later  this  case  will 
receive  a  fairer  hearing  and  calmer  consideration  at  the  bar  of  public 
opinion.  That  judgment  we  cannot,  if  we  would,  escape.  What  is  done 
here  precipitately,  under  the  influence  of  prejudice,  will  receive  a  search- 
ing examination  there,  and  there  will  come  a  condemnation  of  this  matter 
as  withering  as  it  will  be  just.  Cover  it  as  you  may  with  the  plea  of  ex- 
pediency, this  act  will  hereafter  stand  out  in  its  naked  deformity,  un- 
shielded even  by  popular  prejudice,  as  an  act  of  inexcusable  tyranny,  done 
to  a  prostrate  class.  Public  opinion,  if  not  ripe  now,  is  ripening  for  an 
hour  when  we  shall  look  back  to  this  act  with  burning  cheeks.  Let  us 
not  adopt  such  provisions  as  we  shall  burn  with  shame  to  see  inscribed 
on  the  first  page  of  our  organic  law.  Let  us  do  equal  and  exact  justice, 
regardless  of  creed,  race,  or  color.  If  we  value  liberty,  let  us  not  step 
beyond  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  declare  its  sublime  truths  a 
living  lie." 

The  friends  of  fair  play  were  voted  down  in  the  conven- 
tion, and  by  the  people  of  the  State  ;  but  in  a  broader  field 
their  cause  has  been  heard  and  won.  The  provisions  in  the 
constitution  of  Indiana,  classing  the  negro  as  a  brute, 
athough  unchanged,  have  long  been  inoperative.  On  other 
questions — districting  so  as  to  bring  the  Representative  as 
near  the  people  as  possible  ;  restricting  the  Legislature  in 
the  contraction  of  debt,  and  restraining  it  from  repealing 


60  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

the  charters  of  corporations  unless  for  cause;  exempting 
the  temples  of  learning  and  religion  from  taxation,  etc. — 
the  views  of  the  member  from  St.  Joseph  were  liberal  and 
enlightened.  Most  of  his  positions  are  now  accepted  as  a 
matter  of  course  ;  but  they  were  then  far  from  being  so. 
This  was  his  dtbut  as  a  statesman.  He  was  comparatively 
a  beardless  boy  among  men  grown  gray  with  years  and 
full  of  honors,  the  foremost  men  of  .the  State.  It  was  ten 
years  before  the  election  of  Lincoln.  Nearly  one  third  of 
the  convention  voted  No  on  Jefferson's  assertion,  that  "  all 
men  are  created  equal."  The  people  of  the  State,  by  a 
majority  of  one  hundred  thousand,  sanctioned  the  imposi- 
tion of  a  fine  of  five  hundred  dollars  for  each  offence  on 
any  man  who  should  give  employment  to  a  negro.  In  the 
light  of  the  prodigious  advance  since  made,  this  young 
man's  every  word  and  vote  must  stand  approved.  It  was 
his  first  and  last  appearance  in  State  politics.  His  con- 
stituents called  him  to  step  up  higher,  and  his  destiny  led 
him  into  the  field  of  national  politics. 

The  discovery  of  "  float-gold  "  in  the  river  banks  and 
old  gravel  beds  of  California  drew  emigrants  thither  from 
all  quarters  and  in  great  numbers.  A  free  State  was  pro- 
visionally organized,  and  early  in  1850  its  Senators  and 
Representatives  appeared  in  Washington,  asking  its  admis- 
sion into  the  Union.  Congressional  action,  definitively 
settling  the  differences  between  North  and  South,  respect- 
ing the  status  of  the  new  soil,  was  thus  made  imperative. 
President  Taylor  sent  a  special  message  to  Congress  on  the 
subject  in  February.  Mr.  Clay  had  already  introduced  a 
series  of  measures  designed  to  adjust  these  questions  in  the 
spirit  of  compromise.  They  were  defeated,  as  a  whole, 
but  enacted  in  detail,  toward  the  end  of  a  session  ex- 
tending into  September.  They  involved  the  admission  of 
California  as  a  free  State  ;  the  organization  of  New  Mexico 
and  Utah  as  Territories,  with  the  right  to  adopt  or  reject 
slavery  for  themselves  ;  the  payment  of  ten  millions  to 
Texas  for  the  relinquishment  of  certain  territory  to  New 
Mexico  ;  the  passage  of  a  stringent  fugitive  slave  law  ;  and 
the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 


EDITOR.  6l 

When  these  propositions  were  offered,  the  Register  said  : 
"  Whether  the  Union  is  or  is  not  to  be  wrecked  on  the 
rocks  around  us,  honor  must  be  preserved  ;  and  in  our 
judgment  these  measures  are  the  olive  branch  to  the  South, 
but  hyssop  to  the  North."  Again,  June  6th,  1850  : 
"  There  lives  no  man  in  this  fair  land  whom  we  have  ven- 
erated, esteemed,  and  loved  as  we  have  Henry  Clay.  To 
no  one  would  we  more  willingly  surrender  opinion  where 
less  than  principle  is  at  stake.  But  principle  we  can  sur- 
render to  no  man,  however  eminent,  however  great,  how- 
ever loved  ;  and  fearing  as  we  do  that  by  the  compromise 
of  Mr.  Clay  slavery  may  be  extended  into  our  new  Terri- 
tories, we  cannot  become  a  hypocrite  by  advocating  that 
which  our  conscience  and  our  convictions  condemn."  The 
Register  supported,  however,  as  the  least  objectionable  of 
two  evils,  President  Taylor's  policy— namely,  the  admis- 
sion of  California  without  conditions  ;  leaving  the  Terri- 
tories to  themselves  ;  no  ten  millions  to  Texas  ;  and  no 
fugitive  slave  law.  Upon  President  Taylor's  death  the 
Register  commented  as  follows  :  "  At  such  a  crisis  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  acquiesce  in  the  will  of  Providence,  and  to  realize 
that  the  stern  old  man,  who  was  proving  himself  such  a 
faithful  pilot,  has  fallen  while  yet  his  firm  hand  was  on  the 
helm.  Of  the  future,  with  all  the  clouds  that  lower  round 
us  and  darken  as  we  gaze,  this  is  not  a  fitting  time  to 
speak.  We  know  that  Fillmore  will  prove  no  Tyler  ;  but 
whether  the  Disunionists  can  be  held  in  check  as  well  by 
a  Northern  man  as  by  the  departed  President,  none  but 
the  Omniscient  can  tell." 

The  Whig  Convention  of  the  Ninth  Congressional  Dis- 
trict was  held  May  28th,  1851.  The  resolutions  reaffirmed 
the  positions  taken  in  1847  and  1849 — no  extension  of  slave 
territory,  no  interference  with  slavery  in  the  States,  no  tol- 
eration of  disunion  sentiments.  While  not  approving  all 
the  provisions  of  the  Clay  Compromise,  they  accepted  it 
as  a  settlement  until  time  and  experience  should  render  its 
modification  necessary  or  desirable.  The  convention  unan- 
imously nominated  Schuyler  Colfax  for  Congress.  Upon 
invitation  he  appeared,  and  "  addressed  the  convention  in 


62  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

a  brief  speech,  which  was  received  with  great  satisfaction." 
He  immediately  announced  in  the  Register  that  Mr.  James 
Davis  would  assume  his  editorial  place  and  responsibility. 
"  The  position  in  which  I  have  been  placed,"  he  writes, 
"  was  not  sought  ;  a  few  months  ago  I  never  dreamed  of 
occupying  it."  "  The  nomination  was  not  only  unanimous, 
but  hearty,"  says  the  report,  written  by  Mr.  Davis.  "  Pub- 
lic opinion  throughout  the  district  was  concentrated  upon 
Colfax,  and  no  other  man  was  thought  of."  l 

Dr.  Graham  N.  Fitch,  of  Logansport,  the  Democratic 
candidate,  was  the  sitting  member  for  the  district,  a 
man  of  ability,  and  afterward  United  States  Senator, 
having  been  illegally  elected  in  1857.  In  the  civil  war  he 
became  colonel  of  a  regiment  which  he  had  raised  and 
which  he  led  to  the  field.2  He  promptly  challenged  the 
Whig  candidate  to  a  joint  canvass  of  the  sixteen  counties 
comprising  the  Ninth  District.  Colfax  accepted,  and 
seventy  speaking  appointments  were  made,  involving  a 
thousand  miles  of  travel.  June  26th  he  wrote  his  wife 
from  Rensselaer  :  "  We  made  nearly  the  whole  distance, 
forty  miles,  as  we  had  the  thirty  miles  the  day  previously 
on  the  Grand  Prairie,  without  any  road  to  guide  us.  I 
never  saw  such  a  grand  sight.  Prairie  flowers  in  profu- 
sion, and  the  whole  scene  like  Lake  Erie,  except  that  it 
was  green  and  not  blue.  The  way  we  travelled  was  to 
take  sight  from  one  grove  to  another,  and  then  wind  around 
sloughs  and  bogs  whenever  we  struck  them.  For  twenty 
miles  yesterday  we  did  not  see  a  road,  but  every  few  miles 
droves  of  cattle  attended  by  a  herder.  The  country  looks  as 
it  did  when  it  first  came  from  the  hands  of  its  Creator." 

1.  Mr.  Greeley  had  written  him  in  April  :  "  You  have  been  once  a  candidate,  and  have 
been  gloriously  successful  every  way  ;    it  is  not  best  that  you  be  defeated  now ;    and 
defeated  you  will  be  unless  your  nomination  is  spontaneous  and  very  hearty.    If  there 
is  the  least  demur,   you  will  be  beaten.     The  times  are  unpropitious  ;   the  people  are 
lazy  ;  the  Administration  excites  no  enthusiasm  ;  the  Whigs  are  distracted.    Don't  accept 
the  nomination,  if  tendered  you,  if  there  is  to  be  a  single  county  in  which  you  will  be 
cut  or  run  behind  the  Whig  strength.    The  tunes  are  out  of  joint ;  they  will  not  always 
be  so,  and  you  are  young  yet." 

2.  He  was  an  excellent  officer,  and  was  strongly  urged  for  promotion  by  Mr.  Colfax. 
President  Lincoln,  however,  refused  to  promote  him,  whereupon  he  resigned  his  com- 
mtesion,  giving  as  a  reason  that  his  pay  would  not  support  his  family.    In  later  years  he 
was  regarded  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  his  party. 


EDITOR.  63 

His  private  letters  throw  a  side  light  on  this  somewhat 
novel  canvass.  "  Judge  Biddle  advised  me  to  fire  small 
arms  at  the  doctor  constantly,  which  he  said  always  tor- 
mented him  far  worse  than  to  discuss  grave  principles  ;  and 
I  have  done  so,  to  Fitch's  great  dissatisfaction."  Fitch  had 
canvassed  the  district  three  or  four  times  before,  knew 
everybody,  and  prescribed  for  the  sick  without  charge  as 
he  travelled  about  ;  and  he  had  the  other  advantages  of 
age,  experience,  and  prestige.  "  He  is  not,  however,"  his 
opponent  writes,  "  so  sanguine  as  he  was  when  he  started. 
He  is  nettled,  and  complains  of  my  always  keeping  him  on 
the  defensive.  But  he  is  twice  as  much  of  a  gentleman  as 
when  he  left  home.  He  poured  down  his  satire  on  me  for 
several  speeches,  and  when  it  was  not  personal  abuse  I 
would  look  up  and  smile  in  his  face,  and  retort  cuttingly 
but  good-humoredly.  He  at  first  perverted  my  position 
and  remarks  shamefully,  and  while  exposing  that,  I  would 
take  pains  to  do  full  justice  to  all  his  positions,  accept  all 
his  explanations  of  his  votes,  concede  to  him  what  he 
claimed  as  his  intentions,  and  then  turn  his  flanks,  and  on 
his  own  showing  pour  the  hot  shot  into  him.  This  course, 
with  the  experience  that  he  cannot  browbeat  or  intimidate 
me,  has  taken  off  much  of  his  bitterness,  and  we  bid  fair 
to  have  a  friendly  canvass." 

Dr.  Fitch  undertook  to  excite  prejudice  against  his 
young  antagonist,  because  of  his  opposition  in  the  Consti- 
tutional Convention  to  the  proscription  of  the  negroes, 
although  they  had  agreed  that  it  had  no  place  in  their  can- 
vass. In  his  turn  Colfax  cited  this  agreement,  rehearsed 
his  views  on  the  subject,  concluding  :  "  These  are  my  con- 
victions ;  I  cannot  sacrifice  them,  and  would  not  for  fifty 
terms  in  Congress."  A  story  is  told  illustrating  his  readi- 
ness. The  doctor  had  closed  his  speech  on  one  occasion 
by  suggesting  that  his  friend  would  better  have  "  tarried 
in  Jericho  until  his  beard  had  grown"  before  aspiring  to 
a  seat  in  Congress.  The  young  man  rose  amidst  a  shout 
of  laughter  at  his  expense,  stepped  forward,  glanced 
around,  and  said  :  "  I  was  not  aware,  my  friends,  that 
brass  and  beard  were  the  necessary  qualifications  of  a  Con- 


64  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

gressman.     If,  in  your  judgment,  it  is  so,  I  must  renounce 
all  hope  of  your  votes,  as  I  confess — what  you  cannot  but 
see — that  my  competitor  has  a  superabundance  of  both."  1 
He  writes  his  wife,  June  2ist  : 

"  At  Peru  I  made  a  capital  impression,  despite  my  heart-sickness  at 
the  Squire's  removal  [from  a  Special  Mail  Agency].  Is  it  not  shameful  ? 
Here  am  I  risking  health,  and  giving  time,  effort,  and  money  to  revolu- 
tionize a  Locofoco  district,  and  add  one  to  the  supporters  of  the  Admin- 
istration in  Congress,  while  they  strike  down  one  of  the  best  life-long 
Whigs  in  the  land,  wounding  me  in  the  tenderest  place  ;  my  competitor 
at  the  same  time  carrying  a  commission  in  his  pocket  from  the  same 
Administration  to  settle  some  Indian  difficulties,  at  five  dollars  a  day. 
That's  backing  one's  friends  with  a  vengeance  !  Fitch  would  be  willing, 
from  the  way  he  talks,  after  the  3d  of  July — to  which  time  we  have  pub- 
lished appointments — to  canvass  only  by  county-seats  in  the  north  end  of 
the  district  [St.  Joseph  County  excepted,  of  course]  ;  but  I  shall  not  con- 
sent. I  begin  to  think,  as  my  friends  do,  that  there  is  hope,  and  shall 
work  faithfully  and  untiringly,  if  health  is  spared." 

Again,  from  Logansport,  June  226.  : 

"  Fitch  had  the  opening  and  close.  He  opened  in  a  speech  purposely 
long  to  weary  out  and  drive  off  the  country  people,  and  spoke  two  hours 
and  twenty-seven  minutes,  instead  of  one  hour  and  fifteen  minutes,  as  our 
arrangement  provides  for.  He  did  not  receive  a  single  plaudit.  I  fol- 
lowed him  in  a  speech  of  one  hour  and  three  quarters,  and  it  would  have 
done  you  good  to  hear  the  stamping  and  shouting.  I  had  the  sympathy 
of  almost  all,  for  many  of  his  friends  were  offended  at  his  purposely  long 
speech.  When  I  closed,  and  he  rose  for  his  fifteen  minutes'  close,  three 
fourths  of  the  audience  left,  galling  him  to  the  quick.  He  turned  pale 
with  anger." 

Again,  from  La  Porte,  July  27th  : 

"  Fitch  opened  in  a  first-rate  speech,  but  was  not  applauded  once.  I 
followed  him,  and  as  I  spoke  I  warmed  up,  and  the  applause  came  thicker 
and  faster.  His  fifteen  minutes'  close  amounted  to  nothing,  and  the 
Whigs  went  away  rejoicing,  enthusiastic,  more  than  satisfied,  while  the 
Locos,  Fitch  included,  were  mad,  and  had  but  little  to  say.  I  am  satisfied 
now  that  my  chance  is  better  than  Fitch's,  if  the  railroad  vote  don't 
swamp  me.  Fitch  feels  so  himself,  judging  from  his  looks  and  actions. 
He  is  improving  in  his  speaking,  but  even  his  friends  acknowledge  that 
we  are  a  well-matched  team." 

But  all  hopeful  appearances  proved  misleading.  The 
removal  of  Colfax's  stepfather  from  office,  and  the  appoint- 

1.  The  Kev.  A.  Y.  Moore,  "Life  of  Colfax,"  Peterson  Bros.,  1868. 


EDITOR.  65 

ment  of  Dr.  Fitch  to  office,  were  easily  made  to  count  in 
his  own  favor  by  the  doctor.  To  this  the  young  man 
ascribed  his  defeat  by  the  narrow  majority  of  two  hundred 
votes.  He  believed  he  could  have  overcome  all  the  other 
odds  against  him,  but  this  was  too  much. 

He  defined  his  position  at  the  opening  of  this  canvass 
in  reply  to  the  Abolitionists,  whose  central  committee  ad- 
dressed letters  of  inquiry  to  both  candidates.  He  replied 
in  substance  that  the  Constitution  authorized  the  reclama- 
tion of  fugitive  slaves,  and  that  while  the  law  of  1850  was 
unnecessarily  harsh  and  summary,  he  could  not  pledge 
himself  to  favor  its  repeal  ;  its  details  should  be  modified 
in  time,  but  there  was  no  chance  of  it  at  present,  and  he 
did  not  favor  agitation  for  the  sake  of  agitation.  He  was 
neither  willing  to  interfere  with  slavery  where  it  existed, 
nor  to  see  it  extended  one  rood.  Congress  could  not  right- 
fully abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  without 
the  consent  of  the  people  of  the  district.  He  ended  :  "  I 
shall  not  attempt  to  succeed  in  this  canvass  by  a  profession 
of  pledges,  and  would  quite  as  willingly  be  judged  by  my 
life  and  my  opinions,  so  often  and  publicly  expressed,  as 
by  pledges  given  on  the  eve  of  the  election." 

He  was  re-elected  Grand  Representative  to  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  the  United  States  in  1851,  notwithstanding  the 
rule  against  electing  those  who  are  not  in  attendance,  and 
in  September  he  writes  from  Baltimore  :  "  We  have  been 
busy  beyond  all  measure  this  week,  working  about  eleven 
hours  a  day,  and  during  every  moment  of  leisure  elec- 
tioneering steadily  for  my  pet  measure — the  Ladies'  De- 
gree. It  has  been  opposed  most  strenuously  ;  all  sorts  of 
objections  have  been  raised  ;  all  sorts  of  speeches  against 
it  made  ;  all  sorts  of  attempts  to  stifle  it.  You  can  judge, 
therefore,  of  my  gratification,  when  nearly  all  of  its  friends 
had  given  it  up  as  hopeless,  and  when  its  opponents  were 
certain  of  victory,  when  I  tell  you  that  this  moment  we 
have  carried  it  by  47  to  37."  It  is  said  that  sixty  thou- 
sand women  have  since  become  Daughters  of  the  Degree, 
its  author  having  himself  conferred  it  on  thousands.1  At 

1.  "I  can  never  forget  that  unparalleled  meeting  of  the  Degree  of  Kebekah,  in  Dash- 


66  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

the  previous  session  he  had  offered  a  resolution  that  a 
committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  prepare  an  appropriate 
Degree  for  the  wives  of  Scarlet  Degree  members,  and  re- 
port the  same  at  the  next  convocation  of  the  Grand  Lodge. 
Appointed  chairman  of  the  committee,  his  two  associates 
made  a  majority  report  against  the  proposed  Ladies'  De- 
gree, but  the  chairman  carried  it  through. 

The  Whig  State  Convention  of  February,  1852,  chose 
him  as  one  of  the  two  delegates  at  large  for  the  State,  to 
the  National  Whig  Convention  of  that  year,  the  State  Con- 
vention instructing  for  Scott  and  Crittenden.  Upon  Presi- 
dent Taylor's  death,  in  July,  1850,  Vice-President  Fillmore 
had  become  President,  had  "  Tylerized  "  his  Administra- 
tion, and  was  now  a  candidate  for  the  Presidential  nomina- 
tion. Webster  was  also  a  candidate  ;  both  of  them  what 
were  called  *'  doughfaces,"  Northern  men  who  had  gone 
over  to  the  South  on  the  slavery  issue.  A  platform  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  227  to  about  60,  before  the  balloting 
began.  It  was  an  unqualified  indorsement  of  the  com- 
promise of  1850,  as  a  final  settlement  of  the  slavery  agita- 
tion. The  Northern  Whigs  would  not  have  adopted  this 
platform  in  any  of  their  State  conventions,  but  under  the 
circumstances  most  of  them  lacked  the  courage  of  their 
convictions.  The  subject  of  this  memoir  stood  with  the 
three-score  who  voted  against  the  platform,  but  was  never- 
theless strongly  in  favor  of  having  Scott's  letter  accepting 
the  platform,  which  had  been  prepared  in  advance,  read  to 
the  convention  when  Scott  should  be  placed  in  nomination. 
He  writes  to  his  wife,  June  i5th,  and  if  it  appears  egotisti- 
cal, we  must  remember  that  it  was  to  his  wife  : 

"  I  had  a  private  interview  with  General  Scott  to  give  him  some  coun- 
sel, which  he  received  gladly.  He  is  very  affectionate  with  me.  I  differ 
with  Seward  and  the  New  Yorkers  as  to  the  right  course  to  pursue  to  get 
him  nominated  ;  and  as  my  instincts  on  politics  prove  generally  right  in 
the  end,  I  fear,  as  they  are  his  chief  advisers,  and  as  he  will  probably  be 
compelled  to  follow  their  counsel,  and  as  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania  agree 

away  Hall,  where,  with  seven  sentinels,  and  twelve  hundred  present,  four  hundred  of 
them  ladies,  I  conferred  the  Degree  on  seventy-five  wives  and  widows  of  my  California 
brethren,  at  San  Francisco,  in  1865."— Letter  of  Coif  ax  to  the  New  Age,  September 
4,  1881. 


EDITOR.  67 

with  them,  that  he  will  be  beaten.  My  idea  is,  that  his  letter  on  the 
compromise,  which  is  prepared  and  is  to  be  given  in  accepting  the  nom- 
ination, should  be  read  to  the  convention  before  balloting,  so  as  to  secure 
for  him  the  votes  of  some  Southern  delegates,  who  cannot,  under  their 
instructions,  vote  for  him  without  it.  I  was  at  Seward's  on  Sunday,  and 
took  dinner  with  him,  talking  with  him  some  three  hours  on  these  and 
other  matters.  He  sent  for  me  again  last  night  late,  but  could  not  con- 
vince me  on  this  point.  We,  of  course,  agree  on  everything  else.  He 
is  too  confident  of  Scott's  success  in  being  nominated." 

The  event  justified  the  Hoosier  politician,  for  none  of 
the  Southern  delegates  except  those  from  Delaware  could 
be  brought  to  support  Scott  until  the  letter  had  been  read, 
and  then  their  votes  nominated  him.  He  wrote  again  on 
the  i;th  : 

"  We  have  been  at  work  two  days,  and  have  effected  nothing — have 
not  even  a  report  on  the  contested  seats.  After  that  is  disposed  of,  we 
next  have  to  discuss  the  platform  on  slavery,  which  the  South  are  deter- 
mined to  force  upon  us,  being  aided  in  it  by  the  Webster  men  of  New 
England.  And  then  we  have  to  ballot — no  telling  how  long — for  President 
and  Vice.  I  don't  think  we  shall  adjourn  before  Monday  or  Tuesday 
next.  I  am  one  of  the  secretaries,  of  course,  as  perhaps  you  have  seen 
in  the  papers  before  this.  I  don't  think  Fillmore  can  be  nominated  at 
all  ;  but  his  friends  are  to  go  over  to  Webster  when  they  find  they  can't 
nominate  FiJlmore  ;  and  the  struggle  will  probably  be  in  the  end  a  close 
one  between  Scott  and  Webster,  with  the  chances  in  favor  of  the  general. 
I  have  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Three  from  each  Scott 
State,  which  meets  every  evening  for  consultation  and  wire-pulling,  and 
must  close." 

Again  on  the  igth  : 

"  We  have  had  six  ballots  for  President,  closing  at  9.30  P.M.,  last 
evening  ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  tell  when  we  will  get  through.  The  vote 
stood  on  the  various  ballots  :  Scott,  130  to  134  ;  Fillmore,  130  to  134  ; 
Webster,  29.  It  takes  149  to  nominate.  You  see  the  Webster  men  have 
the  balance  of  power,  and  they  declare  that  they  will  stand  firm  as  a  rock 
and  never  give  him  up.  On  the  last  ballot,  two  delegates  from  Illinois, 
instructed  for  Scott,  voted  for  Fillmore,  causing  much  excitement.  It  is 
said  that  two  others  will  "follow  them.  Iowa  and  Wisconsin,  decided 
Scott  States,  have  had  all  their  delegates  won  over  since  they  came 
East,  and  give  all  their  votes  but  one  for  Fillmore.  Yesterday,  before 
balloting,  a  combination  of  the  Fillmore  and  Webster  men  threw  out  of 
their  seats  seven  Scott  delegates  from  New  York  and  Vermont,  whose 
seats  were  contested,  and  put  seven  Fillmore  men  in  their  places — a 
change  of  fourteen  votes  against  us.  You  cannot  imagine  the  excitement 
that  exists  here.  The  Taylor  convention  of  1848  does  not  approach  to  it." 


68  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Again  on  the  2oth  : 

"We  have  had  the  hottest  kind  of  weather,  perfectly  sweltering, 
laborers  dying  in  all  the  cities  with  sunstroke,  etc.,  but  no  cholera.  To 
crown  all,  we  have  had  the  hottest  kind  of  work  in  the  convention,  and  at 
half-past  nine  last  night  we  adjourned  to  meet  again  Monday  morning. 
We  have  had  no  less  than  forty-six  ballots  for  President,  and  you  can 
judge  how  pertinaciously  the  delegates  stick  to  their  favorites  when  I 
state  that  there  have  not  been  half  a  dozen  changes  in  all  these  ballotings. 
The  gain  has  been,  however,  on  our  side,  as  Scott  is  three  votes  higher 
and  Fillmore  six  votes  lower  than  when  the  ballots  commenced.  You 
can't  imagine  how  tremendous  is  the  pressure  of  the  Administration  in 
its  efforts  to  secure  Fillmore's  nomination,  and  how  prodigally  Webster's 
friends  spend  money,  give  dinners,  etc.,  to  gain  over  delegates.  Fill- 
more's friends  have  secured  two  who  were  instructed  for  Scott,  and 
voted  for  him  at  first.  So  that,  but  for  that,  Scott's  gain  would  have  been 
larger  than  it  is. 

"  But  the  remainder  stand  firm,  and  declare  that  they  will  do  so  for  a 
month,  if  necessary,  to  secure  Scott's  nomination.  The  rumor  to-day  is 
that  some  Southern  delegates  will  come  over  to  us  to-morrow,  and  if  so, 
we  shall  triumph,  as  we  only  lack  fifteen  votes  of  enough  to  nominate 
him.  The  prospect  is  now  considered  the  most  favorable  for  Scott.  Yes- 
terday morning  it  was  considered  the  most  favorable  for  Fillmore  ;  but  we 
had  been  playing  a  deep  game  to  surprise  them,  and  we  kept  their  vote 
all  day  under  130,  when  they  had  expected  to  open  with  140  and  over, 
and  to  nominate  him  on  the  second  or  third  ballot.  So  we  had  all  the 
Jclat  in  our  favor — a  great  point.  I  have  scarcely  time  to  write  or  eat,  as 
we  are  constantly  consulting,  electioneering,  refuting  slanders,  etc." 

Driven  to  it  as  a  last  resort,  Scott's  managers  finally 
caused  his  letter  accepting  the  platform  to  be  read  to  the 
convention.  A  few  Southern  delegates  thereupon  joined 
the  Scott  phalanx,  and  on  the  fifty-third  ballot  he  received 
159  votes,  and  was  nominated,  Fillmore  retaining  112  and 
Webster  21. 

Mr.  Colfax  engaged  actively  in  the  canvass.  He  was 
pleased  with  Scott's  letter  of  acceptance.  The  Register  was 
reduced  in  price  for  the  campaign,  and  it  was  never  more 
vigorously  edited.  The  country  seemed  exceedingly  enthu- 
siastic. Scott  Guards,  Scott  Clubs,  Scott  Volunteers,  were 
organized,  glee-clubs  and  military  bands  attended  the 
speakers.  Colfax  addressed  the  clubs  at  his  home  and  in 
the  vicinity.  With  hundreds  from  Northern  Indiana,  he 
attended  the  Lundy's  Lane  celebration  at  Niagara  Falls  — 


EDITOR.  69 

a  gathering  of  sixty  thousand  people  from  twenty-eight 
States  —  acting  as  secretary,  and  taking  his  turn  in 
speaking. 

Delegate  to  the  Whig  Congressional  Convention  of 
the  Ninth  District  in  August  (the  new  constitution  brought 
the  time  a  year  sooner),  it  was  proposed  to  again  nominate 
him  for  Congress  ;  but  he  declined  the  honor,  and  it  fell  on 
Judge  Horace  P.  Biddle,  of  Logansport.  In  a  letter  to 
President  Fillmore,  written  in  July,  he  had  said  :  "  Al- 
though urged  to  make  another  trial  for  the  district  this  fall, 
I  shall  decline  ;"  and  he  gave  as  his  reason  that  with  the 
coolness  if  not  hostility  of  the  Administration  toward  him, 
he  could  not  hope  to  succeed.  His  stepfather  had  been 
reinstated  in  the  office  of  Special  Mail  Agent  previous  to 
the  nomination  of  Scott  ;  and  after  that  again  removed. 
Writing  from  the  East  in  the  fall,  he  says  :  "  Everybody 
— Whig  and  Democrat — from  Maine  to  Georgia,  censures 
me  that  I  did  not  run  for  Congress  this  year,  the  news  of 
my  declining  having  gone  through  the  Union  by  tele- 
graphic dispatch." 

While  the  Whig  canvass  was  carried  on  with  unusual 
spirit,  the  friends  of  the  defeated  candidates  gave  the  ticket 
a  lukewarm  support  ;  *  the  loss  of  the  States  holding  elec- 
tions in  October  lowered  without  extinguishing  the  hopes 
of  the  friends  of  Scott  ;  but  the  elections  of  November  de- 
feated the  gallant  General.  Webster  died,  Clay  had  just 
breathed  his  last,  and  thus  the  Whig  Party  and  its  great 
chiefs  were  inurned  together,  as  was  fitting.  The  Register 
of  November  4th  said  :  "  Defeated  by  treachery,  by  cal- 
umny, and  by  a  combination  of  adverse  circumstances,  we 
shall  uphold  and  defend  Whig  principles  to  the  last,  believ- 
ing them  to  be  those  upon  which  a  truly  American  Gov- 
ernment should  be  administered."  The  editor  was  of  the 
opinion  that  another  trial  of  Democracy  would  serve,  as 
twice  before,  to  teach  the  people  its  insufficiency  and  errors, 
and  that  then,  as  before,  they  would  call  in  the  Whigs. 
He  was  right  ;  but  it  was  not  to  be  under  that  name,  always 
associated  in  his  mind  with  the  doctrines  and  deeds  of 

1.  It  is  said  that  Mr.  Webster,  on  his  death-bed,  advised  his  friends  to  vote  for  Pierce. 


70  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

those  who  bore  it  in  the  Revolution  ;  and  it  was  to  be 
under  circumstances  no  less  momentous  than  those  by 
which  the  mettle  of  the  Revolutionary  Whigs  was  tested. 

Near  the  end  of  the  eighth  volume  of  the  Register,  he 
placed  a  power  press  in  his  office,  the  first  in  the  State  out- 
side of  the  capital,  and  made  the  Register  the  largest  paper 
in  the  State.  On  this  he  was  greeted  by  the  newspaper 
fraternity,  irrespective  of  politics,  cordially  and  approv- 
ingly. "  Mr.  Colfax  is  an  energetic  and  enterprising  busi- 
ness man,"  said  a  Detroit  paper,  "  a  clear-headed,  able 
writer,  and  as  sound  and  true  at  heart  as  in  the  head." 
"  Schuyler  Colfax  is  the  ablest  and  best  editor,  and  one  of 
the  most  gentlemanly  men  in  Indiana,"  said  the  Indianap- 
olis Sentinel  (Democratic),  "  and  we  heartily  congratulate 
him  on  the  prosperity  which  has  resulted  from  his  talents, 
energy,  and  courtesy."  Generally,  the  R  gister  was  cred- 
ited with  being  "  one  of  the  best  papers  we  know  of  ;  well- 
conducted,  full  of  interest,  an  excellent  paper — its  pros- 
perity is  well  deserved."  A  new  prospectus  contained  the 
following  :  "  Convinced  that  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  has 
become  a  necessity,  the  Register  will  earnestly  advocate  its 
immediate  construction." 

He  was  besought  to  run  for  the  State  Senate  in  1849. 
He  declined,  perhaps  because  he  thought  the  Whigs  had 
no  chance  to  win,  as  the  election  proved  to  be  the  case. 
The  same  year  there  was  an  effort  to  get  him  on  the  Chicago 
Journal.  Mr.  T.  Lisle  Smith  wrote  him  in  October  : 

"  I  want  to  have  a  good  long  talk  with  you,  and  see  whether  I  cannot 
arrange  with  you  to  occupy  the  editorial  chair  of  the  Chicago  Journal, 
.It  needs  a  change.  In  that  opinion  its  best  friends  concur.  No  one 
could  better  effect  the  change  than  yourself.  Such  was  the  opinion  of 
the  postmaster,  R.  L.  Wilson,  prior  to  his  visit  to  Washington,  and  such 
is  his  opinion  now." 

He  had  this  under  consideration  for  some  months.  In 
June,  1850,  Mr.  Greeley  wrote  him  : 

"  You  will,  of  course,  decide  to  go  to  Chicago,  and  I  would  not  dis- 
suade you.  You  will  afterward  repent  it,  and  I  do  not  wish  you  to  re- 
member that  I  advised  you  to  go.  It  will  be  an  unwise  step  ;  but  who 
was  ever  dissuaded  by  that  consideration  ?  You  have  a  good  position, 


EDITOR.  71 

not  a  hard  life,  a  prosperous  paper,  are  surrounded  by  friends,  and  may 
have  office  in  time  if  you  are  disposed.  If  you  leave  all  this,  and  move 
to  Chicago,  you  voluntarily  plunge  into  a  more  arduous  position,  incur 
debt,  hazard  failure,  and  all  for  what  ?  You  are  the  first  editor  where 
you  are  ;  you  may  not  always  be  first  in  Chicago.  It  is  not  a  pleasant 
nor  a  brotherly  city  to  live  in  ;  your  wife  will  be  away  from  her  friends. 
But  what  of  all  this  ?  You  will  go — so  blessings  attend  you." 

He  did  not  go.     In  December,  1853,  Greeley  wrote  him  : 

"  By  the  way,  Defrees  wants  to  sell  out  [his  paper,  the  Indiana  Slate 
Journal].  You  know  that  concern  can't  help  making  money,  and  you 
want  to  buy  it,  unless  you  mean  to  live  and  die  in  South  Bend,  which 
would  be  best.  If  you  ever  mean  to  be  tempted  to  leave  your  native 
heather,  I  would  say,  Go  to  Indianapolis,  and  go  now  !" 

This  might  have  been  a  good  move  for  him,  but  he  did 
not  make  it.  Greeley  wrote  him  a  little  later  :  "  You  are 
right  in  not  going  to  Indianapolis  ;  but  I  wish  some  gritty 
chap  would  buy  out  Defrees.  Couldn't  you  coax  Sam 
Galloway,  of  Columbus,  to  do  it  ?  Do  let  us  have  some 
editors  in  harness  by  the  time  we  get  ready  for  another 
fight.  '  Things  is  working' — I  can  see  that." 

Both  political  parties  attempted  to  rest  on  the  com- 
promises of  1850,  as  finally  settling  the  slavery  agitation  ; 
but  it  was  soon  found  to  be  more  unsettled  than  ever. 
The  people  of  Missouri  naturally  desired  the  organization 
of  the  country  between  their  State  and  California,  and  be- 
gan to  move  for  it  in  1844.  They  made  no  headway  until 
1854,  when  Mr.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  reported  from  the 
Senate  Committee  on  Territories  a  bill  organizing  what  is 
now  Kansas  and  Nebraska  as  Nebraska  Territory.  Mr. 
Dixon,  of  Kentucky,  moved  an  amendment,  declaring  the 
line  of  36°  30'  inapplicable  to  the  proposed  new  Territory. 
Mr.  Douglas  had  the  bill  recommitted,  and  subsequently 
reported  it  to  the  Senate  with  amendments,  organizing 
two  Territories — Nebraska  and  Kansas — and  declaring  the 
Missouri  Compromise  superseded  by  the  compromise  of 
1850  and  inoperative. 

In  the  Register  of  February  i6th,  1854,  the  editor  re- 
viewed the  controversy  over  African  slavery  from  the  first  ; 
showed  that  Missouri  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a 
slave  State,  in  consideration  that  slavery  should  never 


/2  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

blight  another  inch  of  soil  north  of  its  southern  boundary- 
line  ;  exposed  the  fallacy  of  the  claim  that  the  Missouri 
Compromise  was  superseded  by  the  Clay  Compromise  ; 
denounced  Douglas's  theory  of  "  squatter  sovereignty"  in 
the  Territories  ;  and  closed  thus  :  "  Whatever  others  may 
do,  when  Congress,  seduced  by  executive  patronage,  tram- 
melled by  political  dictation,  forgetful  of  its  plighted  faith, 
passes  this  bill,  we  enlist  under  the  banner  of  repeal. 
Whether  successful  or  defeated,  we  will  go  with  the  oppo- 
nents of  this  bill  before  the  people  on  an  appeal  to  them 
from  the  recreancy  of  their  Representatives." 

A  county  meeting  was  called,  which  Congressman  Eddy 
was  requested  to  address.  He  declined.  If  Colfax  as- 
pired to  succeed  Eddy  he  must  have  been  pleased  at  this  ; 
but  he  appealed  to  Eddy  in  the  Register,  with  unusual 
earnestness,  not  to  cast  the  vote  of  the  free  men  of  his 
large  and  intelligent  district  against  their  well  known  con- 
victions and  wishes  for  this  perfidious  act.  Having  previ- 
ously passed  the  Senate,  the  bill  passed  the  House  at  mid- 
night of  May  22d,  1854.  The  Register  was  pained  to  see 
Dr.  Eddy's  name  recorded  in  its  favor,  and  thought  his 
friends  would  find  it  impossible  to  return  him  to  Congress 
after  this  betrayal  of  his  trust.  The  editor  restated  his 
own  position  as  follows  :  "  Whatever  others  may  do,  we 
shall  neither  recommend  nor  practise  submission  to  this 
gross  outrage.  We  now  go  back  to  the  policy  of  our 
Revolutionary  forefathers,  of  Jefferson  and  Franklin,  to 
the  platform  of  the  united  North  in  1819,  when  the  Legis- 
lature of  every  Northern  State  declared  that  no  new  State 
should  be  admitted  with  slavery." 

St.  Joseph  County,  the  Ninth  District,  the  entire  North, 
was  soon  aflame  with  indignation.  The  slave  propa- 
ganda, unmindful  of  the  rising  storm,  or  defying  it,  agi- 
tated for  the  reopening  of  the  African  slave-trade  and  the 
acquisition  of  Cuba.  The  Administration  devoted  itself 
to  enforcing  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  which  made  the 
claimant  judge  and  jury,  and  commanded  all  men  to  be 
his  executioners.  Under  cover  of  the  summary  processes 
of  this  law,  many  free  negroes  were  carried  into  bondage. 


EDITOR.  73 

The  border  people  of  Missouri  began  to  organize  to  occupy 
Kansas,  and  the  Northern  people  to  form  Emigrant  Aid 
Societies  for  the  same  purpose.  The  Missourians  moved 
in  far  enough  to  hold  a  meeting,  resolve  "that  slavery 
already  exists  in  Kansas/'  warn  the  Abolitionists  to  keep 
their  distance,  and  set  prices  on  the  heads  of  the  agents  of 
the  Emigrant  Aid  Societies. 

During  these  months  the  Register  sturdily  advocated  the 
abandonment  of  party  lines  and  "  a  union  of  free  men  for 
the  sake  of  freedom."  Commenting  on  one  of  these 
articles,  Chapman  s  Chanticleer,  edited  by  Jacob  P.  Chap- 
man, a  veteran  Democrat,  demanded  "  a  mass  convention 
of  all  opponents  of  the  Nebraska  iniquity."  He  named 
July  1 3th,  because  it  was  the  anniversary  of  the  passage  of 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  as  an  auspicious  day  for  such  a 
meeting,  and  the  capital  of  the  State  as  the  best  place.1 
His  motion  was  universally  seconded  by  the  anti-Nebraska 
press,  and  ten  thousand  citizens  responded  to  the  call, 
H.  L.  Ellsworth  heading  a  delegation  of  five  hundred 
Democrats  from  Tippecanoe  County  alone.  The  Capitol 
Park  Grounds  were  rather  ungraciously  opened  by  the 
State  officials  for  the  use  of  the  gathering.  At  a  prelimi- 
nary meeting,  held  on  the  i2th,  Jacob  P.  Chapman,  Schuy- 
ler  Colfax,  Henry  S.  Lane,  S.  S.  Harding,  John  W.  Wright, 
and  R.  A.  Riley  were  the  speakers.  Thomas  Smith  pre- 
sided over  the  mass  convention  next  day  ;  the  Rev.  (after- 
ward Bishop)  Ames  opened  the  proceedings  with  prayer. 
The  regular  speakers  were  Henry  S.  Lane,  H.  L.  Ellsworth, 
J.  A.  Hendricks,  David  Kilgore,  G.  B.  Jocelyn,  and  ex- 
Governor  Bell,  of  Ohio.  J.  A.  Hendricks  reported  the 
platform,  which 

"  Resolved^  That  we  are  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  and  that 
we  deprecate  and  repudiate  the  principles  and  platform  adopted  by  the 

1.  It  was  policy  for  the  Whigs  to  get  the  anti-Nebraska  Democrats  to  take  the  lead. 
Defrees  writes  Colfax,  June  16th  :  "I  have  been  prevailing  on  others  to  make  the  move 
for  a  State  Convention,  preferring  that  it  should  come  from  Democrats,  if  possible.  Had 
the  Journal  been  first  to  move,  it  would  have  been  set  down  as  a  Whig  movement. 
On  next  Monday  will  be  published  a  call,  signed  by  many  Democrats  in  different  portions 
of  the  State,  for  a  meeting  of  all  opposed  to  the  platform  of  the  Democratic  State  Con- 
vention. Efforts  must  be  made  to  prevent  its  becoming  a  failure.  Come  down,  with 
as  many  Democrats  as  you  can  bring.1' 


74  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

self-styled  Democratic  Convention  of  last  May,  held  in  this  city  to  sustain 
the  Nebraska  swindle. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  will  waive  all  party  predilections,  and  in  concert, 
by  all  lawful  means,  seek  to  place  every  branch  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment in  the  hands  of  men  who  will  assert  the  rights  of  freedom,  and  re- 
store the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  refuse,  under  all  circumstances,  to 
tolerate  the  extension  of  slavery. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  regard  intemperance  as  a  great  political,  moral, 
and  social  evil,  and  a  legitimate  subject  for  legislation  ;  and  that  we  favor 
the  passage  of  a  judicious,  constitutional,  and  effective  prohibitory  law, 
with  such  penalties  attached  as  will  effectually  suppress  the  traffic  in 
intoxicating  liquors." 

A  mixed  State  ticket  was  agreed  upon.  The  name 
Republican  was  not  adopted.  The  Democrats  dubbed  the 
new  party  "  The  Abolition  Free-Soil  Maine-Law  Native- 
American  Anti-Catholic  Anti-Nebraska  Party  of  Indiana." 
These  strange  political  and  moral  elements,  brought  to- 
gether on  this  occasion  by  a  common  patriotic — nay,  more 
than  patriotic — by  a  humane  impulse,  carried  their  State 
ticket  by  a  majority  of  twelve  thousand,  elected  the  Legis- 
lature, sent  Schuyler  Colfax  and  eight  other  straight  Re- 
publicans to  Congress  ;  and  the  party  thus  organized  has 
elected  its  candidates  for  Presidential  Electors  six  times 
out  of  the  eight  Presidential  elections  that  have  since 
occurred. 

The  Michigan  State  Convention,  ;<  under  the  oaks'*  at 
\  Jackson,  which,  as  a  State  movement,  first  formed  and 
christened  the  "  REPUBLICAN  PARTY,"  preceded  this  Indi- 
ana People's  Convention  by  just  one  week.  The  same  day 
a  fusion  convention  was  held  at  Columbus,  O.,  whose  (Re- 
publican) ticket  carried  the  State  by  seventy  thousand 
majority.  Similar  proceedings  were  had  in  New  York,  in 
Massachusetts,  and  other  States.  Within  a  year  fifteen 
States  were  carried  by  the  new  party,  eleven  Republican 
Senators  elected,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  out  of  one 
hundred  and  forty-two  Northern  members  of  Congress 
opposed  to  the  slavery-extension  policy  of  the  Adminis- 
tration. 

The  example  of  the  State  (Indiana)  was  followed  in  the 
counties  and  Congressional  districts.  The  calls  for  con- 


EDITOR.  75 

ventions  were  to  all  who  condemned  the  Nebraska  iniquity. 
Bolting  from  Democratic  conventions  became  common. 
Sitting  Democratic  members  of  Congress  who  had  voted 
for  the  Nebraska  fraud  betrayed  a  disinclination  to  run 
again.  Many  Democratic  papers  declared  for  the  ' '  People's 
ticket."  Whigs  and  Free-Soilers,  who  together  constituted 
the  new  party,  welcomed  accessions  from  the  Democracy, 
and  gave  Democrats  the  majority  of  the  nominations. 

This  process  of  readjustment  having  gone  on  since 
February,  "  the  free  men  of  the  Ninth  District  opposed  to 
the  extension  of  slavery,  and  in  favor  of  the  restoration  of 
the  Proviso  of  Freedom,"  met  in  mass  convention  at 
Bradford,  August  2d,  and  nominated  Schuyler  Colfax  for 
Congress  by  acclamation.1  He  was  "  introduced,  accepted 
the  nomination,  and  addressed  the  convention  with  clear- 
ness, force,  and  eloquence,  in  opposition  to  the  late  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  upon  kindred  subjects." 
Months  earlier  the  flood-gates  of  abuse  had  been  raised  for 
his  benefit.  Called  a  "  Robespierre,"  and  charged  with  the 
utterance  of  incendiary  and  treasonable  sentiments,  he 
said  in  substance  :  "  I  hold  it  to  be  the  duty  of  free  men 
to  elect  a  House  of  Representatives  which  will  restore  the 
Missouri  Compromise  as  a  '  proviso  '  to  the  first  appropri- 
ation bill,  and  keep  it  there,  whatever  the  consequences. 
If  that  be  treason,  make  the  most  of  it." 

Dr.  Eddy  was  indisposed  to  make  the  race  against  him2 — 

1.  Mr.  Greeley  had  written  him  in  March  :  "  Things  look  so  well,  that  I  would  strongly 
advise  you  to  run  for  Congress  this  fall  if  the  nomination  comes  to  you  without  asking- 
I  suppose  the  chances  are  two  to  one  that  you  would  lose  ;  but  that  would  be  a  real  gain, 
because  you  would  extend  your  acquaintance  and  increase  your  circulation.     I  have 
little  faith  in  the  principle  of  the  North,  but  some  in  its  pride.    To  be  overreached  in 
a  bargain  is  not  pleasant  to  Yankees,  and  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  they  were  to  kick." 

Again  in  June :  "  I  think  you  ought  to  run  for  Congress,  if  that  seems  to  be  the 
general  desire  ;  for  if  you  don't  run  in,  the  labor  of  the  canvass  will  be  repaid  to  you 
by  the  increased  zeal  and  obligation  of  your  friends,  and  if  you  do  run  in,  as  you  don't 
want  to  be  re-elected,  you  can  pursue  a  straightforward,  fearless,  faithful  course,  and 
make  more  friends  for  all  time  to  come.  I  thought  it  would  be  a  nuisance  and  a  sacrifice 
for  me  to  go  to  Congress  ;  but  I  was  mistaken  ;  it  did  me  lasting  good  ;  and  I  shall 
always  be  thankful  for  the  succession  of  seeming  casualties  that  sent  me  there.  No  man 
would  care  to  pass  his  life  under  the  fire  of  a  battery,  but  one  experience  of  the  kind 
would  be  valuable  ;  and  I  never  was  brought  so  palpably  and  tryingly  into  collision  with 
the  embodied  scoundrelism  of  the  nation  as  while  in  Congress.  A  nomination  isn't 
worth  fishing  for,  but  if  tendered,  you  ought  not  to  decline  it." 

2.  On  his  way  home  from  Washington,  after  a  long  musing  pause,  Dr.  Eddy  is  said 


76  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

he  had  sustained  the  Nebraska  outrage  against  argument 
and  appeal,  and  the  obvious  fact  that  a  majority  of  his 
constituents  were  opposed  to  it  with  all  their  hearts — but 
he  could  not  get  out  of  it ;  appointments  for  fifty  joint  dis- 
cussions were  arranged  and  published,  and  the  canvass 
began.  Carrying  no  dead  weight  and  a  good  "  stumper/' 
it  was  easy  for  the  editor  to  out-do  the  doctor.  Eddy  could 
not,  of  course,  take  the  extreme  Southern  position — that 
slavery  existed  in  the  Territories  already  and  always  by 
virtue  of  the  Constitution.  He  was  restricted  to  "  squat- 
ter sovereignty" — the  right  of  the  Territories  to  settle  it  for 
themselves.  In  their  first  encounter,  the  editor  asked  the 
doctor  whether  he  would  vote  for  the  admission  of  Utah 
with  polygamy,  were  Utah  to  apply  for  admission.  The 
logic  of  Dr.  Eddy's  premises  compelled  him  to  reply  that 
he  would.  "Well,"  said  his  antagonist,  "I  would  not; 
and  if  the  good  people  of  this  district  expect  any  such  vote 
of  me,  they  should  not  send  me  to  Congress." 

In  the  nature  of  things  Congress  must  control  the  Terri- 
tories, acquired  as  they  are  by  the  States  in  common,  of 
whom  Congress  is  the  agent.  It  always  had  done  so,  even 
the  Congress  of  the  Confederation.  And  while  no  one 
denies  the  rightfulness  of  "  popular  sovereignty"  in  the 
abstract,  it  cannot  be  allowed  to  a  Territory  without  lim- 
itation, because  the  action  of  a  Territory  affects  the 
community  of  States,  of  which  it  is  destined  to  become  a 
member,  and,  therefore,  the  Constitution  limits  it.  The 
"  popular  sovereignty"  of  the  Territories  was  nothing  but 
a  convenience  for  men  who  "  didn't  care  whether  slavery 
was  voted  up  or  down,"  while  men  who  did  care  set  the 
stage  for  a  storm  that  swept  away  the  wrong  forever. 

Dr.  Eddy  performed  his  task  to  the  end,  and  was  patient 
and  courteous,  considering  that  his  opponent  had  the  pop- 
ular side  of  the  argument  and  won  all  the  applause.  He 

to  have  broken  out  to  a  friend  :  "Well,  I  am  going  home,  and  a  pretty  fix  I  am  in  1 
They  compelled  me  to  vote  for  the  Nebraska  Bill,  then  the  Democratic  Convention 
placed  me  on  a  whisky  platform  ;  they  have  nominated  the  most  popular  Whig  in 
my  district  as  my  opponent ;  the  President  has  vetoed  the  River  and  Harbor  Bill,  which 
lays  me  out  cold  in  the  Lake  part  of  my  district ;  and  by !  they  have  egged  the  Ad- 
ministration in  the  person  of  the  President,  and  I  am  held  accountable  for  it  all." 


EDITOR.  77 

was  beaten  by  1766  in  a  total  poll  of  18,212.  Two  years 
before  he  had  been  elected  over  Judge  Biddle  by  1108 — an 
extraordinary  change,  even  for  this  year  of  change.  In 
many  respects  the  canvass  was  the  duplicate  of  that  of 
1851,  the  candidates  riding  together  a  thousand  miles, 
eating  and  often  sleeping  together,  but  crushing  each 
other  as  utterly  as  they  could  in  their  joint  debates.  Now- 
adays, robust  assertion,  a  little  ridicule,  and  a  few  stories 
suffice  an  ordinary  stump  speaker  ;  the  real  discussion  -is 
carried  on  by  the  press.  Thirty  years  ago  candidates  dis- 
cussed politics,  and  in  each  other's  presence,  and  one 
could  not  talk  at  the  people,  he  had  to  talk  with  them. 
Positions  had  to  be  taken,  and  not  only  taken,  but  held. 
Audiences  may  not  have  been  as  cultivated  as  those  of 
Pericles,  but  they  were  intelligent  and  honest.  The  issues 
touched  their  personal  interests  at  vital  points  ;  they  had 
their  ideas  about  these  issues,  and  they  had  their  votes. 
4<  Stumping"  was  a  trial  of  throats  and  of  physical  endu- 
rance as  well  as  of  wits  ;  long  roads  had  to  be  travelled, 
and  long  speeches  to  be  made.  Facts,  figures,  argument, 
rhetoric,  satire,  pathos,  humor,  invective,  appeal — all  came 
in  play,  and  character  had  its  usual  weight.  It  was  a 
school  of  candor  and  courtesy  as  well  as  of  eloquence. 
Sincerity,  fervor  of  sentiment,  geniality,  power  of  clear 
statement,  and  exhaustless  command  of  facts,  constituted 
Colfax's  strength  on  the  stump. 

"  You  cannot  imagine  the  excitement  of  our  election 
here,"  he  writes  Mrs.  Colfax  from  South  Bend  ;  "  it  ex- 
ceeded any  Presidential  contest.  The  polls  were  fairly 
blocked  up  outside  with  a  dense  mass  of  people  all  day, 
all  talking  and  working — three  fourths  of  them  for  me. 
God  never  gave  better  friends  to  any  man  than  I  have  here, 
and  they  labored  for  me,  too,  as  they  had  never  done  be- 
fore. My  majority  in  this  township,  about  tied  politically, 
is  167  ;  and  in  the  county,  616.  I  can  scarcely  believe  it 
yet.  As  the  returns  came  pouring  in  from  the  various 
townships  that  night  my  friends  were  beside  themselves. 
I  could  not  pass  ten  steps  on  the  street  without  a  great 
crowd  forming  a  circle  around  me  and  hurrahing,  and  so 


78  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

it  was  kept  up  till  midnight.  I  am  prouder  of  this  Waterloo 
victory  in  the  county  where  I  -have  lived  so  many  years 
than  I  am  of  my  election,  which  is  now  only  a  question  of 
majority." 

Dr.  Eddy  raised  a  regiment  when  the  war  came,  and 
rendered  gallant  service  at  the  front.  Brought  out  of  the 
bloody  fields  near  Corinth  with  three  bullets  in  him,  he 
asked  the  surgeon  in  attendance  what  his  chances  were. 
The  surgeon  replied  they  were  few,  and  that  if  he  had  any 
messages  for  home  he  might  well  give  them.  "  Doctor," 
said  he,  "  if  I  die,  tell  them  all  I  died  loving  my  friends 
and  my  country."  He  recovered,  and  after  the  war  was 
elected  Secretary  of  State  for  Indiana  by  his  party.  He 
was  a  gentleman  and  a  man  of  ability. 

Mr.  Colfax  spent  the  next  winter  at  the  State  capital, 
in  attendance  on  the  Legislative  session,  where  he  exerted 
himself  to  get  the  fusion  elements  of  the  new  party  work- 
ing together  harmoniously.  The  following  June  found 
him  at  the  Know-Nothing  National  Council  in  Philadel- 
phia, as  a  delegate  from  Indiana.  Reorganized  in  1852, 
and  as  a  secret  fraternity,  Know-Nothingism  spread  all 
over  the  States  in  1854,  through  the  dissatisfaction  in  both 
the  old  parties  at  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
In  the  fall  of  that  year,  at  the  suggestion  of  Kenneth 
Rayner,  an  eloquent  Whig  of  North  Carolina,  a  Third 
Degree  was  adopted  by  the  Order,  based  simply  on  the 
idea  of  uncompromising  devotion  to  the  Union.  "  In  six 
months,"  says  Henry  Wilson,  "a  million  and  a  half  of 
men  had  taken  the  degree,  and  it  continued  to  be  adminis- 
tered till  the  final  dissolution  of  the  organization."  1  In 
the  spring  of  1855,  under  the  lead  of  Henry  A.  Wise,  the 
Democrats  won  a  signal  victory  over  the  Order  in  Virginia, 
its  anti-slavery  tendency  in  the  previous  election  making 
this  easy.  The  leaders  of  the  Order  South,  and  an  influ- 
ential part  of  them  North,  were  determined  to  correct  this 
tendency  at  this  national  council.  It  was  an  important 
occasion  ;  the  eyes  of  the  country  were  fixed  on  the  pro- 
ceedings. Henry  Wilson,  as  the  Northern  anti-slavery 

1.  Henry  Wilson's  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power." 


EDITOR.  79 

leader,  was  coarsely  denounced  by  the  Southern  delegates 
as  an  Abolitionist  and  disorganizer.  General  Wilson  re- 
plied with  spirit  that  he  had  been  pledged  to  liberty  for 
twenty  years,  and  should  never  turn  back.  The  past  be- 
longs to  slavery,  to  you,  he  said  ;  the  future  to  freedom, 
to  us.  "  We  shall  prohibit  slavery  in  the  Territories,  and 
abolish  it  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  We  shall  repeal  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  Kansas  shall  never  come  into  the 
Union  as  a  slave  State."  The  discussion  lasted  five  days, 
and  when  majority  and  minority  resolutions  were  reported, 
an  attempt  was  made  to  force  the  adoption  of  the  former 
without  discussion.  This  was  resisted,  and  debate  on  the 
resolutions,  bright  and  bitter,  ran  on  for  three  days.  The 
entire  argument,  ended  ten  years  afterward  by  the  fall  of 
Richmond,  was  gone  over. 

Mr.  Colfax  had  been  selected  without  his  knowledge  or 
consent  as  a  delegate  to  this  council,  and  he  writes  his 
wife  that  he  believes  he  should  have  followed  his  first  in- 
clination to  decline  the  appointment.  He  fears  there  is 
little  hope  that  the  order  will  come  up  to  his  platform — 
anti-slavery  and  the  admission  of  Protestant  foreigners — 
"  and  in  that  case  I  might  better  for  my  own  sake  in  the 
future  be  away  than  here."  But  his  determination  is  fixed 
to  do  what  is  right,  even  if  it  destroys  his  political  pros- 
pects. "  An  approving  conscience  is  better  than  office, 
and  I  care  too  little  for  the  latter  to  sacrifice  my  convictions 
to  obtain  it."  Later  :  "  Warm  feelings  exist  all  round, 
North  as  well  as  South,  with  little  hope  of  harmony.  I 
am  inflexibly  in  the  position  I  told  you  I  should  occupy, 
and  they  have  heard  from  me  already,  and  will  more  yet. 
A  great  banquet  is  to  be  given  to  the  delegates  .this  after- 
noon. I  have  been  selected  to  respond  to  '  the  Press/ 
but  it  is  to  be  a  '  Union-saving  '  affair,  and  I  shall  not  go." 

When  the  council  rejected  the  minority  resolutions,  and 
adopted  a  position  of  neutrality  as  to  slavery,  the  delegates 
of  thirteen  States,  among  them  those  of  Indiana,  withdrew, 
and  issued  addresses  to  the  country,  taking  unequivocal 
ground  for  the  restoration  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  ; 
for  the  protection  of  the  free  State  settlers  in  Kansas  and 


80  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Nebraska  ;  for  religious  freedom  ;  for  a  free  Bible,  free 
schools,  and  free  labor  ;  against  'the  admission  of  any 
more  slave  States  ;  and  against  the  deportation  of  convicts 
and  paupers  to  this  country  by  foreign  nations.  This 
action  was  regarded  as  an  important  addition  to  the  foun- 
dations of  the  new  party  of  freedom.  It  was  the  first 
national  convention  in  which  there  was  distinctively  a 
North. 

After  his  return  home  Colfax  found  that  the  bold  and 
manly  action  of  the  seceding  delegates  had  broken  his  fall, 
so  to  speak.  He  wrote  his  wife  :  "  I  am  satisfied  I  did 
more  good  for  freedom  than  I  ever  did  before  in  my  whole 
life,  and  I  am  quite  indifferent  as  to  what  the  result  may 
be  to  me  personally."  This  open  connection  with  the 
Know-Nothings  led  men  to  suppose  that  he  must  have 
been  an  affiliated  member  of  the  Order  ;  but,  as  he  main- 
tained all  his  life,  he  was  not.  "  You  did  not  seek  nor 
solicit  an  initiation,"  E.  W.  Jackson,  of  Concord,  N.  H., 
writes  him,  July  3d,  1855  ;  "  but  as  I  was  authorized  to 
do,  I  proffered  to  give  you  the  '  work,'  and  on  your  pledge 
of  secrecy  did  so."  The  Register  of  June  2ist,  1855,  con- 
curs in  many  of  the  Know-Nothing  doctrines,  as  it  says  it 
always  had  ;  but  it  disapproves  of  secret  political  organi- 
zations, and  of  making  a  man's  birthplace  the  test  of  his 
Americanism.  "  He  knew  all  about  Know-Nothingism, 
but,  like  thousands  of  others,  never  entered  a  lodge.  This 
whole  region  was  overrun  with  it  in  1854.  There  was  very 
little  secrecy  about  it.  What  was  necessary  was  communi- 
cated in  the  woods,  or  in  any  quiet  place.  Without  it  the 
new  party  could  not  have  carried  that  election  over  the 
Democrats  as  it  did."  1 

The  Grand  Encampment  of  the  Odd  Fellows  unani- 
mously elected  him  Grand  Representative  in  1855  for  the 
fourth  time.  His  alternate,  who  had  attended  the  session 
of  1854  in  his  stead,  he  being  on  the  stump,  desired  the 
honor,  but  could  not  get  a  member  to  nominate  him  against 
Colfax.  This  mark  of  confidence  from  men  of  all  politics, 
many  of  whom  aspired  to  the  office  themselves,  affected 

1.  Mr.  James  M.  Matthews,  of  Sedan,  Kan.,  formerly  of  Buchanan,  Mich. 


EDITOR.  8l 

him  so  that,  upon  being  called  on  for  a  speech,  he  could 
only  briefly  express  his  thanks.  His  life  was  full  of  such 
tributes  to  his  trustworthiness  and  capacity.  Men  were 
generally  indisposed  to  contend  for  any  office  that  he 
would  accept.  At  the  session  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the 
United  States  in  September,  he  discovered,  as  he  writes 
Mrs.  Colfax,  "  that  the  fact  of  my  running  for  Congress 
last  fall  is  what  caused  my  defeat  for  Grand  Sire,  then  ;  if 
I  had  been  here  instead  of  on  the  stump,  I  should  have 
been  elected  easily/'  He  was  taken  to  task  by  the  South- 
ern brethren,  who  were  much  exercised  over  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  Northern  people  ;  but  he  defended  his  position 
and  principles  calmly  and  resolutely,  and  the  session 
proved  a  very  pleasant  one.  The  next  year  he  resigned 
the  office  of  Grand  Representative,  because  of  the  pressure 
of  public  duties.  "  The  Order  never  had  a  more  earnest 
member.  He  lived  its  principles  first,  and  then  taught 
them  on  every  occasion.  His  addresses  on  the  subject 
were  innumerable.  He  saw  the  Order  grow  in  our  State 
during  his  connection  with  it  from  twenty-nine  lodges, 
with  fifteen  hundred  members,  to  six  hundred  lodges,  with 
twenty-six  thousand  members.  Among  the  brethren  his 
name  ranks  with  the  founders  and  pioneers  of  the  Fraternity 
of  friendship,  love,  and  truth,  now  numbering  more  than 
half  a  million."  > 

In  the  fall  of  1855  a  fire  destroyed  the  Register  presses 
and  most  of  the  office,  the  avails,  in  part,  of  ten  years' 
labor.  The  loss  was  about  three  thousand  dollars.  It 
was  insured  for  fourteen  hundred  dollars.  With  the 
insurance  new  material  was  bought,  and  the  editor 
"  started  with  fresh  vigor  to  build  up  in  time  a  still 
better  establishment."  2  He  engaged  Mr.  Alfred  Wheeler 
to  take  his  editorial  chair  during  the  sessions  of  Congress. 
"  My  profit  last  year,"  he  writes  Wheeler,  "  less  twelve  and 
a  half  per  cent  for  bad  debts,  was  fourteen  hundred  dol- 
lars. This  year  type-setting  is  higher — twenty-two  cents. 
I  made  it  so  voluntarily.  Tight  times  cut  down  the  ad- 

1.  Mr.  John  W.  McQuiddy,  of  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

2.  On  this  occasion  he  entered  the  burning  building  and  rescued  his  files,  at  serious 
risk  of  his  life. 


82  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

vertising,  but  it  will  not  be  under  one  thousand  dollars, 
even  with  my  enlarged  paper/'  Mr.  Wheeler  thought  he 
ought  to  have  nine  dollars  a  week  for  his  whole  time  in  the 
office  ;  Mr.  Colfax  agreed  to  that,  and  of  his  own  motion 
added  ten  per  cent  of  the  net  proceeds  of  the  business. 

Before  leaving  home  for  Washington,  he  addressed  the 
patrons  of  his  paper  in  a  card,  thanking  them  for  their 
support,  in  spite  of  the  calumnies  heaped  upon  him,  and 
expressing  his  regret  at  parting  with  them.  He  felt  that 
in  the  new  field  he  was  about  to  enter  he  had  much  to 
learn,  but  he  had  learned  already  that  principle  was  a  safe 
guide  over  the  stormiest  sea  ;  he  regarded  fidelity  as  of 
higher  value  than  talents,  in  public  as  in  private  life,  and 
he  hoped  to  illustrate  it  in  the  record  he  should  make.  In 
the  Register  of  November  i5th,  1855,  he  stated  his  political 
creed  in  seven  propositions,  which  readily  resolve  them- 
selves into  "  freedom  national,  slavery  sectional."  "  He 
will  be  one  of  the  youngest  men  in  the  House,"  writes  an 
admirer  in  \.\\t  Register  after  his  departure  ;  "  but  in  knowl- 
edge of  political  questions  and  skill  in  political  manage- 
ment, together  with  sleepless  vigilance  and  unflagging  in- 
dustry, he  will  be  one  of  its  most  able  and  efficient  mem- 
bers. Whoever  may  prove  weak  and  false  in  the  great 
struggle  of  the  coming  session,  Schuyler  Colfax  will  not 
be  found  wanting." 


CHAPTER   III. 
THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS. 

1855-1857. 

AFFAIRS  IN  KANSAS. — Two  MONTHS'  BALLOTING  FOR  SPEAKER. — SAVES 
THE  BATTLE  AT  CRITICAL  MOMENTS. — APPOINTED  ON  THE  ELECTIONS 
COMMITTEE. — WHAT  THE  HOUSE  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE  FOUND  IN 
KANSAS. — GIVES  NOTICE  OF  PROVISO  TO  THE  ARMY  BILL. — GREAT 
SPEECH  AGAINST  THE  ENFORCEMENT  OF  THE  BOGUS  LAWS. — A  MILL- 
ION COPIES  CIRCULATED. — IN  THE  EARLY  CONGRESSIONAL  REPUBLI- 
CAN CAUCUSES. — CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  PUBLIC  MEETINGS. — SUM- 
NER  ASSAULTED. — ARMY  BILL  LOST  BETWEEN  THE  Two  HOUSES. — 
EXTRA  SESSION,  THE  HOUSE  BEATEN. — RECEPTION  AT  HOME. — CAN- 
VASS FOR  RE-ELECTION,  ELECTION  DAY  AT  SOUTH  BEND. — SHORT 
SESSION,  THE  HOUSE  AND  THE  ADMINISTRATION. — FREE  SUGAR.— A 
CONGRESSIONAL  PANIC. 

IN  December,  1855,  Mr.  Colfax  took  his  seat  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress, 
a  body  in  some  respects  not  unlike  the  Hampden  Parlia- 
ment, which  began  the  rescue  of  English  liberty  from  the 
grasp  of  kingly  prerogative.  Betrayed  by  the  Senate  and 
the  President,  this  House  was  the  first  rallying-point  of 
the  Northern  people.  Here  they  were  to  begin  to  make 
head  for  freedom,  to  lay  their  approaches  for  the  capture 
of  the  other  branches  of  the  Federal  Government,  which, 
however,  they  were  to  win  only  through  the  madness  of 
the  slave  power.  Few  young  men  ever  entered  the  House 
better  fitted  to  play  an  important  part.  His  personal  en- 
dowments and  bearing  made  him  a  general  favorite.  A 
born  politician,  he  was  even  more  a  philanthropist.  His 
love  of  country  was  intense,  his  love  of  mankind  a  living 
force,  moving  him  to  incessant  activity  for  the  common 
weal.  All  good  causes  had  appealed  to  him  for  advocacy 
since  before  his  majority,  and  never  in  vain.  Always  on 


84  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

the  wing,  he  knew  everybody  who  was  worth  knowing. 
Accomplished  at  all  points,  a  good  parliamentarian,  a 
sagacious  political  manager,  active,  vigilant,  at  his  best 
in  a  crisis,  true  to  his  friends  and  to  his  convictions,  un- 
assuming, careless  of  display  or  of  personal  advantage,  his 
methods  winning  rather  than  compelling,  but  none  the  less 
effective  on  that  account — every  impulse  of  his  nature, 
strengthened  by  his  training,  was  enlisted  in  the  great 
struggle  for  freedom  now  opening.  His  advent  in  the 
House,  with  that  of  several  other  young  men  of  kindred 
sentiments  and  equal  enthusiasm,  marked  an  era  like  "  the 
coming"  of  Clay  in  1811,  but  an  era  of  far  grander  issues 
and  proportions. 

The  struggle  of  1854,  for  the  restoration  of  the  slavery 
restriction  of  1820,  was  now  become  a  struggle  of  personal 
forces,  of  the  respective  colonizing  powers  of  North  and 
South.  In  the  spring  of  1855  Governor  A.  H.  Reeder, 
having  taken  a  census  and  districted  the  Territory,  the 
Missourians  of  the  neighboring  border  invaded  Kansas 
and  elected  a  Legislature,  which  met  later  and  adopted  the 
slave  code  of  Missouri  for  Kansas,  with  such  additions  and 
modifications  as  the  stress  of  their  self-appointed  task 
seemed  to  them  to  require.  This  Legislature  provided  for 
the  election  of  a  delegate  to  Congress,  and  in  the  fall  the 
Missourians  again  invaded  Kansas  and  elected  Mr.  John 
W.  Whitfield  to  that  office.  A  few  of  the  pro-slavery  set- 
tlers joined  in  these  proceedings,  but  none  of  the  free- 
State  settlers.  This  fall,  1855,  the  latter  took  a  part  in 
organizing  the  Territory,  by  forming  and  adopting  a  State 
constitution,  and  electing  Governor  Reeder  to  Congress, 
he  having  been  superseded  by  Wilson  Shannon,  of  Ohio, 
because  he  could  not  go  the  necessary  lengths  in  outrage. 
Governor  Shannon  declared  publicly  on  his  way  out  that 
he  was  in  favor  of  establishing  slavery  in  Kansas. 

From  this  attitude  and  action  of  the  Free-Soilers,  the 
Missourians  saw  that  they  must  redouble  their  efforts  or 
lose  their  prey.  "  Kansas  must  be  slave  or  Missouri  free," 
said  their  leader,  Senator  Atchison,  then  acting  Vice- 
President,  and  the  watchword  passed  along  the  Missouri 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  85 

border,  "  Hang  the  leaders,  and  give  their  besotted  follow- 
ers a  stated  time  to  leave."  Violence  began  by  shooting 
down  in  cold  blood  the  free-State  settlers,  shielding  the 
murderers,  and  arresting  the  friends  of  the  slain  for  bury- 
ing them.  The  sheriffs  and  local  administrative  officers 
were  not  elected,  but  appointed  by  the  usurping  Legisla- 
ture. The  United  States  Marshal  and  all  other  Federal 
officers  were  in  the  plot.  The  holding  of  meetings  to  de- 
nounce these  proceedings,  and  the  liberation  of  innocent 
men  illegally  held  in  custody,  were  made  the  pretext  by 
Governor  Shannon  for  calling  out  the  militia.  The  Terri- 
tory was  soon  full  of  predatory  bands  from  Missouri.  The 
settlers  standing  together  in  self-defence,  the  Governor 
called  on  the  President  for  troops  to  sustain  his  authority. 
Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  Kansas  when  Congress  met. 
A  bare  majority  of  the  House  were  opponents  of  the 
ruling  policy  ;  but  they  had  been  elected  as  Republicans,  as 
anti-Nebraska  Democrats,  as  Know-Nothings  :  the  former 
two  on  the  paramount  issue,  the  latter  without  reference 
to  it,  but  in  extremity  sharing  the  views  of  their  respective 
sections.  The  opposition  had  as  yet  held  no  National 
Convention,  there  was  no  organization,  no  recognized 
authority.  At  informal  conferences  it  was  decided  not  to 
have  a  caucus,  for  fear  it  might  do  more  harm  than  goocl. 
Assembled  December  3d,  Mr.  John  W.  Forney,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Clerk  of  the  preceding  House,  called  the  roll,  a 
quorum  responded,  and  a  two  months'  balloting  for 
Speaker  began,  the  Administration  Democrats  voting  for 
Mr.  W.  A.  Richardson,  of  Illinois  ;  Republicans,  after  the 
twenty-fifth  ballot,  for  Mr.  N.  P.  Banks,  of  Massachusetts  ; 
and  the  Know-Nothings  for  Mr.  H.  M.  Fuller,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, with  scattering  votes  for  several  others.  They  were 
new  men  in  Washington,  for  the  most  part,  impressed 
with  the  dignity  of  their  office,  animated  by  an  earnest 
purpose.  Without  a  Speaker  or  rules,  presided  over  by  a 
secondary  officer  of  a  former  House,  fresh  from  a  hot  fight 
on  the  stump,  they  met  daily,  chatted  together,  took  their 
seats  at  the  proper  time,  and  balloted  without  a  breach  of 
decorum.  The  balloting  was  varied  by  discursive  debate, 


86  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

under  the  practice,  by  common  consent,  of  members  ex- 
plaining their  votes  as  their  names  were  called. 

"  No  one  except  those  engaged  in  that  struggle,"  writes 
Colfax  years  afterward,1  "  realized  its  lights  and  shadows, 
its  hours  of  depression  and  its  hours  of  hope,  the  gloom 
of  its  almost  failure  and  the  exhilaration  of  its  final  tri- 
umph. Surrounded  by  a  hostile  population  at  the  Capital, 
which  did  not  hesitate  at  open  denunciation  wherever  you 
met  them,  the  Congressional  galleries  crowded  with  those 
who  glared  inimically  at  the  friends  of  freedom,  as  the 
contest  went  on  day  after  day,  and  week  after  week,  and, 
finally,  month  after  month,  the  department  officers  and 
clerks  scarcely  concealing  their  hostility,  as  members  trans- 
acted with  them  the  business  of  their  constituents,  and 
without  pay,  for  no  dollar  of  Congressional  salary  can  be 
drawn  except  on  the  signature  of  the  Speaker,  the  friends 
of  freedom  voted,  from  December  to  February,  that  one 
name,  whose  owner,  Banks,  finally,  and  for  the  first  time, 
organized  the  committees  of  the  House  in  favor  of  human 
rights  and  in  opposition  to  the  demands  of  American 
slavery." 

He  tells  how  "  about  a  dozen  Representatives  from  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  Union,  without  any  special  appoint- 
ment or  commission,  except  their  love  for  the  cause,  met 
privately  at  each  other's  rooms  every  other  night,  to  com- 
pare notes  as  to  the  varying  aspects  of  the  canvass  ;  to  de- 
tect as  quickly  as  possible  any  danger  of  a  break  in  the 
column  of  one  hundred  and  seven,  which  had  been  con- 
centrated on  Banks  (for  a  break  would  surely  have  ended 
in  defeat),  and  to  devise  means  to  preserve  that  united 
action  so  necessary  to  success.  The  one  hundred  and 
seven  were  of  all  shades  of  opinion.  Often  some  member, 
wearied  with  the  length  of  the  struggle,  or  not  heartily  in 
accord  with  it,  would  declare  impulsively  that  at  the  next 
session  he  would  break  and  vote  for  some  one  else.  But 
the  next  day  he  would  show  to  his  associates  telegrams 
from  his  leading  friends  at  home,  adjuring  him  to  '  stick 
to  Banks,'  and  so  the  threatened  danger  was  averted.  Not 

1.  The  New  York  Independent,  article  on  Aneon  Burlingame. 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  87 

once  only,  but  a  score  of  times,  was  this  timely  appeal 
made  by  this  laborious  committee  through  the  telegraph 
to  distant  constituencies,  who  watched  from  afar  this  great 
contest  with  deep  solicitude."  But  he  ascribes  their  final 
success  to  Mr.  Greeley's  editorials  in  the  New  York  Tribune 
more  than  to  any  other  single  agency.  Denouncing  deser- 
tion and  applauding  backbone,  these  articles  rang  out 
through  the  country  like  a  trumpet-blast,  morning  after 
morning,  consolidating  public  opinion  behind  every  Banks 
member,  till  those  who  had  been  doubtful  and  wavering 
at  the  outset  became  as  firm  and  unyielding  as  the  bold- 
est. "  God  bless  all  you  good  fellows  at  Washington  !" 
Mr.  Sam  Bowles,  of  the  Springfield,  Mass.,  Republican, 
writes  Colfax,  December  26th.  "  You  are  making  a  great 
fight,  and  one  of  more  importance  and  of  vaster  conse- 
quence than  most  people  imagine.  It  is  settling  the  next 
Presidential  election  and  the  new  order  of  things,  politi- 
cally, for  the  next  generation.  Don't  be  in  a  hurry — 
there's  time  enough  for  it  all." 

About  the  2oth  of  December  a  spicy  debate  occurred. 
The  South  put  up  speaker  after  speaker  to  warn  the  North 
that  if  the  Missouri  prohibition  was  restored  it  would  lead 
to  the  dissolution  of  the  Union.  Positions  were  defined 
on  both  sides  and  on  all  hands.  Question  and  cross-ques- 
tion flew  forth  and  back,  and  retort  and  repartee.  A  day 
or  two  afterward,  Mr.  Stanton,  of  Ohio,  moved  the  adop- 
tion of  the  plurality  rule — that  the  candidate  receiving  the 
highest  vote,  even  if  less  than  a  majority,  be  Speaker.  The 
motion  failed,  107  to  114. 

On  the  25th,  the  House  having  adopted  a  resolution 
for  a  continuous  session  until  a  Speaker  should  be  elected, 
Mr.  Lewis  D.  Campbell,  of  Ohio,  thinking  there  must  be 
a  presiding  officer  of  higher  rank  than  the  Clerk,  if  they 
would  have  order  in  night  sessions,  without  consultation 
with  the  Republicans,  who  had  supported  him  for  the 
Speakership  up  to  the  twenty-sixth  ballot,  offered  a  resolu- 
tion "  that  Mr.  Orr,  of  South  Carolina,  be  requested  to 
preside  over  the  House  till  a  Speaker  should  be  elected." 
A  motion  to  table  this  resolution  failed  by  twenty  major- 


88  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

ity,  and  it  seemed  as  if  Orr  would  in  a  few  moments  be 
seated  in  the  Speaker's  chair.  "  I  determined  to  take 
ground  against  it,"  Colfax  writes  his  wife,  "  by  introducing 
an  amendment — namely,  that  each  of  the  three  parties 
should  select  a  temporary  chairman,  who  should  preside 
alternately,  to  put  Orr's  friends  in  an  anti-magnanimous 
position  if  they  rejected  it,  and  also  to  give  us  time  to  ar- 
range for  the  defeat  of  Campbell's  resolution,  which  would 
have  ended  us  if  it  had  passed."  His  amendment  led  to 
debate,  a  recess  was  taken,  reflection  showed  the  folly  and 
danger  of  Campbell's  resolution,  and  the  next  day  it  was 
withdrawn. 

The  rule  for  continuous  night  sessions  was  rescinded, 
but  one  night  session  was  tried  as  an  experiment.  "  Rich- 
ardson said  to  me,"  writes  Colfax  :  "  '  There  will  be  no 
Banks  men  in  the  morning  ;  '  and  A.  H.  Stephens,  who 
sits  right  behind  me,  said  :  '  You  can't  hold  together 
through  a  night  session.'  We  went  in,  and  came  out  fresh, 
sober,  wide-awake,  ready  to  go  on  twenty-four  hours 
longer.1  The  Democrats  came  out  dispirited,  backing 
down  one  by  one  from  the  caucus  resolution  not  to  adjourn 
till  an  election  ;  and  after  we  heard  the  last  one  drop  we 
took  a  good  laugh  at  them  and  adjourned.  They  have 
nearly  made  up  their  minds  that  they  will  have  to  take 
Banks — bitter  as  the  pill  is — and  when  they  give  up  all 
hope,  the  plurality  rule  will  pass. " 

In  the  night  session  Mr.  Campbell's  proposition  was 
renewed  by  Mr.  Sneed,  of  Tennessee.  It  waked  up  the 
sleepy  members  on  all  sides,  and  a  motion  to  lay  it  on  the 
table  failed  by  only  one  majority.  When  he  was  called 
to  vote  Colfax  briefly  addressed  the  House,  rebuking  the 
inconsistency  of  the  Richardson  and  Fuller  men  and  the 
"  scattering,"  who  coalesced  on  every  question  except 
balloting  for  Speaker,  and  urging  the  responsibility  of 
those  who  aided  in  putting  a  temporary  Speaker  in  the 
Chair,  who,  once  there,  would  never  be  displaced.  On  a 

1.  Mr.  Greeley,  who  was  present,  wrote  :  "  The  sound  portion  of  Indiana  was  never 
more  earnest  than  last  night,  and  Colfax  was  just  ready  to  begin  a  fresh  day's  work  by  a 
solemn  compact  never  to  adjourn  without  a  Speaker,  when  the  other  side  carried  the 
adjournment." 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  89 

call  for  the  previous  question  the  proposition  failed  by 
fourteen  majority.  "  I  would  sit  here  voting  for  months," 
he  writes  home,  "  before  I  would,  by  voting  for  this  propo- 
sition, consent  to  a  temporary  or  permanent  surrender,  and 
would  not  be  deterred  from  duty  by  sneers  from  any  quar- 
ter, injudicious  friend  or  open  foe." 

By  the  middle  of  January  it  was  thought  safe  to  hold 
an  anti-Nebraska  caucus,  and  all  who  were  not  sick  or 
paired  attended,  ninety  of  them.  Mr.  Banks  desired  them 
to  disregard  any  implied  obligation  to  vote  for  him.  A 
long  debate  ended  in  a  resolution  to  "  stick  to  Banks," 
and  to  propose  and  support  the  plurality  rule.  Speaking 
on  the  i Qth,  in  support  of  the  plurality  rule,  Colfax  showed 
from  the  record  that  the  Democrats  favored  it  in  1849. 
"  Nine  distinct  propositions  were  made  during  that  contest 
to  elect  a  Speaker  by  a  plurality  vote,  and  in  every  instance 
but  one  by  Democrats.  Yet  that  party  now  votes  solidly 
against  it."  1 

The  catechising  of  candidates  called  forth  the  noble 
sentiment  from  Banks  that  "  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  is  an  instrument,  not  of  immediate,  but  of 
ultimate  and  universal  liberty."  It  drew  from  Richard- 
son the  declaration  that  he  considered  the  Wilmot  Proviso 
constitutional,  although  inexpedient.  As  a  result,  he  soon 
found  it  best  to  withdraw,  and  Mr.  Orr  was  substituted  by 
the  Democratic  caucus.  Mr.  Fuller  also  withdrew,  so  as 
to  be  in  the  fashion,  but  his  adherents  continued  to  sup- 
port him.  All  kinds  of  propositions  were  made — that  the 
Speaker's  power  be  shared  in  proportion  to  the  votes  of 
the  three  parties  ;  that  the  candidates  all  be  withdrawn  ; 
that  A,  B,  or  C  be  declared  Speaker ;  everything  but  bal- 
loting failed. 

But  upon  a  motion  to  declare  Mr.  Aiken,  of  South  Car- 
olina, Speaker,  Mr.  Orr  withdrew  in  his  favor,  and  the 
Southern  Know-Nothings,  having  driven  the  Democratic 

1.  "  Mr.  Colfax  made  several  good  points,  which  worried  the  other  side  badly.  A  good 
many  members  tried  to  get  out  of  the  hobble  in  which  he  had  placed  them,  but  their  only 
real  point  was  that  in  1849  they  expected  to  elect  a  Democrat,  whereas  now  they  had  no 
doubt  the  plurality  rule  would  elect  an  awful  'Black  Republican.'"—  Washington 
Correspondence  New  York  Tribune. 


90  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

platform,  with  its  caucus  nominee,  from  the  floor,  voted  for 
him.  He  received  103  votes  to  I'lo  against  him.  Obvi- 
ously the  end  was  near.  As  soon  as  the  Journal  was  read 
the  next  morning,  February  2d,  the  plurality  rule  was 
adopted,  115  to  104.  The  one  hundred  and  thirty-fourth 
and  decisive  ballot  for  Speaker  was  taken,  the  Southern 
members  believing  that  their  man  would  win,  the 
Northern  members  knowing  that  theirs  would.  When  the 
roll-call  was  over  Banks  had  103,  and  members  began  to 
change  off  from  Fuller  to  Aiken.  His  tally  ran  up,  94 — 95 
— 96 — 97 — 98—99 — ioo — and  there  it  stood.  After  a  little 
"  filibustering"  the  result  of  the  ballot  was  confirmed  by 
a  vote  of  155  to  40.  Mr.  Aiken  acknowledged  his  defeat. 
Mr.  Banks  was  conducted  by  him  to  the  chair,  and  the  first 
Republican  victory  on  a  national  field  was  scored. 

Out  of  the  dreary  waste  of  these  proceedings  an  inci- 
dent rises  like  a  green  island  out  of  the  sea.  A  gentleman 
having  introduced  some  "  Buncombe"  resolutions,  and 
consumed  considerable  time  in  getting  them  read  for  "  the 
information  of  the  House,"  Mr.  Colfax  raised  a  laugh  that 
settled  them  by  offering  as  a  substitute  the  following  : 

"  Resolved^  That  this  House  earnestly  disapproves  of  any 
attempt,  open  or  covert,  to  annex  the  island  of  Cuba  to 
this  Republic  ;  and  that  it  would  heartily  approve  of  the 
annexation  of  that  part  of  Oregon  which  was  surrendered 
to  Great  Britain  by  the  Administration  of  James  K.  Polk." 
During  this  long,  wearying  contest  for  the  Speakership 
Mr.  Colfax  never  missed  a  vote,  and  he  was  so  fortunate 
as  to  render  signal  service  at  critical  moments.1 

Mr.  Whitfield  had  taken  his  seat  in  the  House  on  the 
certificate  of  the  Governor  of  Kansas,  and  Mr.  Reeder  was 
present  as  a  contestant.  Mr.  Colfax  was  placed  on  the 
Committee  on  Elections,  which,  after  a  laborious  exami- 
nation of  the  case,  reported  in  favor  of  sending  a  special 
committee  out  to  investigate  on  the  spot  the  anarchy  in 

1.  "A  very  large  majority  of  the  Kepublicans  in  Congress,  and  the  entire  Republican 
press,  although  not  impugning  Campbell's  motives,  have  severely  censured  him  for 
introducing  such  a  resolution  [to  seat  Mr.  Orr  as  temporary  Speaker]  ;  at  the  same 
tune  they  give  Mr.  Colfax  credit  for  preventing  its  adoption,  and  unqualifiedly  iudorse- 
his  course."— South  Bend  Register,  Jan.  10, 185G. 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  9! 

Kansas.  Mr.  W.  A.  Howard,  of  Michigan,  Mr.  John  Sher- 
man, of  Ohio,  and  Mr.  M.  Oliver,  of  Missouri,  were  ap- 
pointed and  sent  on  that  duty.  Here  began  the  distin- 
guished public  service  of  Senator  John  Sherman,  which  is 
not  yet  ended.  No  man  has  been  more  useful  these  thirty 
years  past,  whether  in  the  House,  in  the  Senate,  or  in  the 
Cabinet. 

The  House  Committee  found  a  desultory  civil  war  in 
progress  in  Kansas.  The  foreign  militia  had  been  rein- 
forced in  the  spring  by  a  regiment  of  wild  young  men 
from  the  far  South,  under  Colonel  Buford.  Lawrence, 
free-State  headquarters,  had  been  partly  destroyed  in  May 
by  a  posse  of  eight  hundred,  under  Atchison  and  others, 
on  the  pretext  of  serving  writs.  Henry  Clay  Pate  had 
sacked  a  little  free-State  settlement  called  Palmyra,  and 
been  beaten  and  captured,  with  his  booty,  by  John  Brown 
at  Black  Jack.  Osawatomie  had  been  burned  by  General 
Whitfield.  Murders,  robberies,  and  lesser  outrages  were 
of  almost  daily  occurrence  at  Leaven  worth  and  elsewhere. 
A  reign  of  terror  existed.  Governor  Reeder,  addressing 
a  great  meeting  in  Chicago,  at  which  sixteen  thousand  dol- 
lars were  raised  for  the  relief  of  the  harassed  Kansas  men, 
said  :  "  Murder  and  rapine  stalk  abroad  through  that  land." 
Connection  with  the  free-State  Government  organized  at 
Topeka  was  held  by  the  President,  the  Governor,  and  the 
courts  to  be  treasonable,  and  those  guilty  of  it  were  har- 
assed by  writs,  arrests,  fines,  imprisonments.  The  free- 
State  Legislature  assembled  at  Topeka,  but  was  dispersed 
by  the  troops,  under  Colonel  Edwin  V.  Sumner,  on  the 
order  of  the  President.  Emigrants  going  to  Kansas  were 
robbed  in  Missouri,  and  turned  back.  A  large  body,  con- 
voyed through  Iowa  by  James  H.  Lane,  were  met  on  the 
border  of  the  Territory  by  the  soldiers  and  disarmed. 

The  House  Committee  watched  these  proceedings,  and 
took  testimony  a  few  weeks,  returned,  and  reported  that 
no  elections  yet  held  in  Kansas  were  valid  ;  that  all  of 
them  were  the  work  of  invading  mobs  ;  that  the  so-called 
laws  were  of  no  validity,  and  were  being  made  the  pretext 
for  untold  outrages  ;  that  neither  of  the  contesting  dele- 


92  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

gates  was  entitled  to  a  seat  in  the  House,  and  that  the 
free-State  constitution,  framed  at  Topeka,  represented  the 
will  of  a  majority  of  the  settlers.  The  House  voted  that 
neither  contestant  was  entitled  to  a  seat  as  Delegate. 

The  question  of  immediate  consequence  was  whether 
these  "bogus  laws,"  as  they  were  called,  should  be  en- 
forced, and  by  the  army.  Upon  this  question  Mr.  Colfax 
delivered  a  set  speech,  June  2ist,  the  House  being  in  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole  on  the  Army  Appropriation  Bill.  He 
gave  notice  that  at  the  proper  time  he  should  move  a  pro- 
viso to  the  Army  Bill,  providing  that  until  the  so-called 
laws  of  Kansas  shall  have  been  approved  by  the  Senate 
and  House,  "  no  part  of  the  military  force  of  the  United 
States  shall  be  used  in  aid  of  their  enforcement,  nor  shall 
any  citizen  of  Kansas  be  required  to  act  as  part  of  a  posse 
to  aid  in  their  enforcement."  The  laws  embodied  all  the 
brutality  possible  to  slavery.  The  orator  read  them,  clause 
by  clause,  commenting  calmly  on  their  rapacity  and 
cruelty.  With  an  eye  to  stage  effect,  as  he  cited  the  clause 
imposing  imprisonment  at  hard  labor  with  ball  and  chain 
upon  any  one  who  should  say  "  that  persons  have  not  the 
right  to  hold  slaves  in  this  Territory,"  he  lifted  from  his 
desk  an  iron  ball  of  the  statutory  dimension,  six  inches 
through  and  weighing  thirty  pounds,  apologizing  for  not 
also  exhibiting  the  prescribed  six-foot  chain  along  with  it. 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  sitting  near,  asked  to  "  heft  "  it, 
and  would  then  have  returned  it ;  but  the  speaker  allowed 
him  to  dandle  it,  while  in  a  few  sentences  he  showed  that 
Washington,  Jefferson,  Webster,  and  Clay,  if  alive  and  in 
Kansas,  would  now  be  serving  in  the  chain-gang  of  the 
border  men. 

The  speech  had  a  prodigious  effect.  There  may  have 
been  contemporaneous  speeches  displaying  more  culture 
and  eloquence,  but  none  that  with  such  keen  insight  seized 
and  presented  the  precise  means  afforded  by  the  facts  to 
strike  and  affect  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  mass  of  men 
and  women.  It  had  a  great  run  in  the  Republican  press. 
Forty  days  after  its  delivery  half  a  million  copies  had  been 
circulated,  and  the  Republican  Committee  could  not  meet 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  93 

the  demands  for  more  as  fast  as  they  came  in.  Undoubt- 
edly more  than  a  million  copies  of  the  speech  were  dis- 
tributed as  a  campaign  document,  and  our  population  was 
then  less  than  thirty  millions.  "  It  not  only  spreads  before 
us  the  laws  of  the  Missouri-Kansas  Legislature  in  all  their 
deformity,"  said  the  Vermont  Republican,  "  it  shows  the 
corruption  of  the  bogus  Legislature  and  of  the  officers  and 
judges.  Nothing  that  has  been  published  exhibits  so 
vividly  within  the  same  space  the  infamous  conduct  of  the 
Administration  and  the  wrongs  and  outrages  practised  on 
the  free-State  settlers  in  Kansas."  This  was  the  unani- 
mous verdict  of  the  Republican  press.  Senator  Charles 
Sumner  writes  him  :  "Your  speech  deserves  more  credit 
than  I  can  give."  Mr.  Charles  A.  Dana,  then  assistant- 
editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  addresses  him  :  "  Immor- 
tal Coif  ax  !  The  next  time  you  make  a  great  speech  let 
me  suggest  that  it  will  be  a  good  thing  to  send  us  a  copy 
beforehand,  so  that  we  can  print  it  entire,  if  we  want  to, 
instead  of  making  out  the  best  we  can  from  a  poor  tele- 
graphic summary,  and  then,  three  or  four  days  after,  hunt- 
ing after  the  full  report  through  files  of  useless  papers,  all 
in  vain.  Here  am  I  now  to-night  sending  all  over  town  to 
try  and  borrow  the  Globe,  which  should  have  come  this 
morning,  but  has  not  yet  reached  us.  If  I  were  a  profane 
man,  this  is  an  occasion  when  I  would  swear,  and  you 
are  the  man  I  should  swear  at.  Great  meeting  to-night  at 
the  Tabernacle."  This  letter  indicates  that  the  orator  es- 
teemed his  work  more  lightly  than  anybody  else.  Mr. 
Greeley  writes  him:  "We  have  printed  your  speech  in 
pamphlet,  as  you  doubtless  know  ;  and  an  earnest  friend 
says  he  considers  it  the  best  electioneering  document  we 
ever  had.  He  has  made  two  converts  with  it  already,  and 
has  supplied  himself  with  copies  wherewith  to  make  more." 
Several  of  the  Administration  editors  in  his  district  be- 
gan to  see  that  their  shots  were  falling  short.  Dr.  O. 
Everts,  of  the  La  Porte  Times,  advised  his  co-laborers  to 
take  a  new  tack,  unless  they  desired  still  further  to  pro- 
mote this  young  man's  successes.  "  He  is  the  best  specimen 
of  his  party  which  the  State  has  sent  up  to  Washington, 


94  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

.and  the  prominent  position  he  has  so  early  taken  shows 
conclusively  that  he  ranks  among  the  big  guns  of  the 
House.  The  Democrats  of  the  Ninth  District  have  got 
him  to  beat,  and  we  are  confident  they  will  succeed  better 
by  giving  him  his  full  deserts  as  a  man — an  able  editor,  an 
interesting  orator,  an  indefatigable  correspondent,  a  busy, 
active,  energetic  legislator,  who,  whether  right  or  wrong, 
is  always  at  his  post  and  true  to  his  instincts — than  by  at- 
tempting to  crush  him  out  by  epithets  of  derision  or  con- 
tempt/' 

He  kept  up  a  regular  correspondence  with  his  paper. 
"  The  course  I  have  marked  out  for  myself  in  my  letters, 
is  to  speak  freely  of  the  votes  of  men  and  their  positions, 
to  commend  highly  those  who  do  right,  but  in  condemna- 
tion to  avoid  any  remarks  to  which  exceptions  could  be 
taken  as  personal  or  abusive."  J  He  writes  in  January  : 
"  It  looks  to  me  very  much  like  defeat  next  fall,  for  it 
will  be  a  miracle  if  the  North  is  united,  as  she  must  be 
to  win."  In  March  :  "  The  opinion  here  is  that  Fillmore 
will  decline  after  the  Republicans  nominate,  but  he  may 
conclude  to  run,  as  Van  Buren  did  in  1848,  to  beat  his 
old  friends.  I  pray  that  the  Pierce  movement  may  gather 
strength,  as  Buchanan  is  the  strongest  man  they  could  run. 
On  our  side  the  Fremont  feeling  is  gaining  strength  rapid- 
ly. He  is  strong  in  New  England  and  New  York,  and 
would  carry  California,  which  no  one  else  can.  He  is 
sound  on  the  Kansas  question — very  sound.  McLean,  I 
think,  will  be  his  principal  competitor.  I  don't  like  his 
[McLean's]  pro-slavery  decisions,  and  he  has  been  a  can- 
didate for  twenty  years.  But  the  people  at  home  must 
make  the  candidates,  and  I  will  cheerfully  labor  for  whom- 
soever they  prefer.  On  the  whisky  question,  under  the 
Supreme  Court  decision,2  until  we  can  reform  the  judges, 
we  cannot  get  an  efficient  law  ;  and  if  we  cannot,  need  we 

1.  From  his  private  letters  it  appears  that  he  had  eight  thousand  persons  on  his  list  of 
correspondents,  and  "  it  costs  eighty  dollars  to  supply  them  with  one  speech  each." 
May  1st  he  had  spent  two  hundred  dollars  in  this  way.    He  paid  twenty -two  dollars  a 
week  for  board  and  rooms  for  himself  and  Mrs.  Colfax  ;  at  the  hotels  he  says  it  would 
cost  them  thirty-five  dollars. 

2.  The  State  Supreme  Court  had  overturned  both  the  old  local  option  anti-liquor  law 
and  the  new  prohibitory  law  passed  since  the  adoption  of  the  revised  constitution. 


THIRTY-FOURTH    CONGRESS.  95 

provoke  prejudice  against  us  without  being  able  to  effect 
any  good  ?  I  would  not  '  take  back  '  my  principles,  but 
now  it  appears  that  all  we  can  do  is  to  labor  for  freedom, 
and  that  that,  therefore,  should  be  the  overshadowing 
issue."  In  May  :  "  Fremont,  if  cordially  united  upon  by 
the  opposition,  will  sweep  the  country,  I  think,  unless  the 
Democrats  nominate  Buchanan,  who  will  give  us  a  hard 
race."  He  suggests  that  the  Register  come  out  for  Fre- 
mont, in  order  to  head  off  McLean,  whom  he  does  not  want 
at  [  all.  In  August  :  "  Please  get  out  your  hand-bills  for 
the  South  Bend  appointments,  without  any  attempt  to 
parade  me  as  extra-faithful,  or  anything  of  that  sort  in 
them." 

The  Know-Nothings  met  in  February,  and  adopted  a 
platform  virtually  sanctioning  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  neutral  as  to  Kansas,  fifty  Northern  dele- 
gates thereupon  withdrawing  from  the  council.  The  next 
day  they  nominated  Millard  Fillmore  for  President  and 
Andrew  J.  Donelson  for  Vice-President ;  and  the  remnant 
of  the  Whigs  afterward  adopting  this  ticket,  Northern  de- 
feat in  the  Presidential  election  was  as  good  as  assured. 
The  same  week,  in  February,  the  Republicans  held  a  con- 
vention at  Pittsburg,  appointed  a  National  Executive  Com- 
mittee, and  called  a  National  Convention  to  meet  at  Phil- 
adelphia, June  i yth.  Mr.  Colfax  was  accused  of  having 
been  at  the  Know-Nothing  Council,  but  denied  it,  and  de- 
clared that  he  repudiated  its  ticket  and  platform.  "  If  I 
had  felt  justified  in  leaving  Washington  to  attend  any 
political  meeting  whatever,"  he  writes,  "  I  should  have 
been  at  the  great  Republican  assemblage  at  Pittsburg,  with 
those  who  are  resolved  to  unite,  irrespective  of  former 
affiliations,  to  restore  the  Government  to  the  policy  of  the 
fathers  of  the  country  and  to  preserve  the  Territories  for 
the  same  perpetual  freedom  to  which  the  New  World  was 
consecrated  in  the  morning  of  our  national  existence. 
That  is  the  great,  the  overshadowing,  the  paramount  issue 
of  the  day,  which  cannot  be  postponed  or  evaded  ;  which 
must  be  settled  now,  and  rightly,  unless  we  are  willing 
that  slavery  shall  possess,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  whole 


96  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

land,  and  wield  with  iron  hand  the  whole  power  of  the 
Government."  Of  the  action  of  the  Know-Nothing  Coun- 
cil, he  said  :  "  The  Fillmore  ticket  may  draw  off  enough 
votes  to  defeat  the  Republican  ticket  ;  I  will  not  deny  the 
probability  that  it  will  ;  but  whether  the  Republican 
ticket  shall  be  successful  or  defeated  this  year,  the  duty 
to  support  it,  to  proclaim  and  defend  its  principles,  to 
arouse  the  conscience  of  the  nation,  is  none  the  less  incum- 
bent." 

In  these  days  the  masses  of  the  future  Republican  Party 
were  gathering,  assimilating,  learning  to  touch  elbows. 
Coming  together  from  all  the  old  parties,  they  were  unused 
to  one  another  and  to  the  new  conditions.  Proceedings  in 
the  House  and  popular  movements  acted  and  reacted  upon 
each  other,  while  the  arrogance  of  the  slave  power,  dis- 
played especially  in  Kansas,  kept  the  elements  at  welding 
heat,  and  plied  the  compelling  hammer.  At  one  of  the 
frequent  caucuses  of  the  anti-Nebraska  leaders  of  the  House 
and  Senate,  held  March  nth,  Colfax  urged  the  full  decla- 
ration by  Republicans  of  their  position  and  intentions  in 
the  coming  struggle.  For  himself,  he  was  for  a  firm  stand 
against  the  aggressions  of  slavery  ;  he  was  for  freedom  in 
the  Territories  and  for  the  vindication  of  the  outraged 
settlers  in  Kansas.  He  denounced  the  President  for  not 
protecting  them  from  the  invasions  of  armed  mobs,  from 
political  lynchings  and  murder,  and  for  hastening  to  de- 
mand obedience,  under  threat  of  military  force,  when  Kan- 
sas, by  these  means,  had  been  prostrated,  and  when  laws 
that  would  disgrace  the  most  absolute  despotism  had  been 
imposed  upon  her.  At  such  a  moment,  he  contended, 
there  should  be  a  hearty  union  of  all  opposed  to  these  in- 
famous proceedings  and  to  the  desecration,  by  the  curse 
of  slavery,  of  soil  once  dedicated  to  freedom.  "  Recognize 
freedom  in  the  Territories  as  the  great  issue  in  the  cam- 
paign, as  it  most  assuredly  is."  "  And  let  the  committee, 
in  calling  a  National  Convention,"  he  said  on  another  oc- 
casion, "  take  the  responsibility  of  invoking  the  people  to 
act  in  their  primary  capacity  ;  not  Republicans  alone,  but 
all,  of  whatever  party  in  the  past,  making  the  call  so 


THIRTY-TOURTH   CONGRESS.  97 

broad  that  no  one  who  resists  the  aggressions  of  slavery 
can  have  any  excuse  on  account  of  party  names  for  holding 
aloof/'  The  call,  when  it  came,  was  for  a  "  People's 
Union  Convention,"  embodying  the  same  ideas,  and  con- 
ceived in  almost  the  identical  language  of  the  call  for  the 
Indiana  State  "  People's  Convention"  of  sixteen  months 
previous,  which  was  inspired,  in  part,  by  Colfax  himself. 

Invited  to  address  a  meeting  at  Newark,  N.  J.,  April 
5th,  he  wrote  a  letter,  the  burden  of  which  was  that  "  the 
South  demands  concession  of  the  right  to  fill  all  the  Terri- 
tories with  human  merchandise,  under  the  threat  of  dissolv- 
ing the  Union — this  is  the  issue  to  be  met."  A  little  later, 
April  22d,  a  great  meeting  was  held  in  New  York  to  hear 
the  report  of  the  New  York  and  New  Jersey  delegations 
returned  from  Pittsburg,  and  to  take  measures  looking  to 
the  organization  of  the  Republican  as  a  national  party. 
Asked  to  be  one  of  the  speakers  at  this  meeting,  he  felt 
obliged  to  decline,  but  wrote  in  part  as  follows  : 

"  Politicians  in  the  Senate  may  clamor  in  regard  to  '  the  equality  of 
the  States,'  which  no  man  denies;  but  the  people  will  regard  it  as  a 
higher  and  nobler  principle  that  we  vindicate  in  our  policy  the  equality 
of  the  American  freeman  ;  and  that  we  demand,  as  one  of  the  needful 
rules  and  regulations  for  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  which  Con- 
gress is  expressly  authorized  by  the  Constitution  to  enact,  that  the  Ter- 
ritories shall  be  organized  as  in  1789  ;  that  all  our  citizens,  from  what- 
ever clime  they  come,  or  whatever  may  be  their  pecuniary  condition, 
shall  have  equal  rights  in  their  settlement  ;  and  that  no  institution  shall 
prevail  in  them  which  shall  degrade  American  labor  and  press  down  the 
mechanic,  the  day-laborer,  the  road-builder,  or  the  worker  in  the  fields 
toward  the  social  condition  of  the  Southern  slave.  In  a  word,  that  it 
shall  be  the  first  duty  of  the  Government  to  see  to  it  that,  wherever  it  has 
constitutional  authority,  labor,  the  primal  element  of  American  pros- 
perity, shall  be  honored,  elevated,  and  protected." 

In  Indiana  the  county  conventions  began  to  meet. 
Mr.  Colfax  was  absent  for  the  first  time  in  fifteen  years, 
but  not  forgotten.  Those  in  his  district  thanked  him  by 
resolution  for  his  zealous  and  well-directed  service.  The 
State  Convention  in  May  was  attended  by  ten  thousand 
delegates,  as  in  1854.  They  adopted  a  "  ringing"  Repub- 
lican platform,  nominated  a  State  ticket,  headed  by  Mr. 


98  SCHUYLER  COL'FAX. 

Oliver  P.  Morton,  selected  delegates  to  the  National  Con- 
vention and  candidates  for  Presidential  Electors. 

In  Washington  Preston  H.  Brooks,  of  South  Carolina, 
assaulted  Senator  Sumner  for  words  spoken  in  debate,  beat- 
ing him  with  a  walking-stick  about  the  head  while  he  was 
seated  at  his  desk  in  the  Senate  chamber,  and  seriously  in- 
juring him.  Among  many  others,  Anson  Burlingame 
denounced  the  assault  and  the  assailant,  and  Mr.  Brooks 
challenged  him.  Mr.  Burlingame  accepted  the  challenge, 
choosing  rifles  as  the  weapons  and  Canada  as  the  place  of 
combat.  Thereupon  Mr.  Sumner  writes  Colfax  :  "  Every 
step  he  takes  must  be  a  failure.  Even  success  will  be  fail- 
ure. I  love  Burlingame,  and  enjoy  his  eloquence,  but  I  de- 
plore his  present  position."  Brooks,  however,  justified  Bur- 
lingame's  action  by  declining  the  duel.  It  was  too  far  to  go, 
and  through  an  enemy's  country,  he  said.  He  was  sudden- 
ly become  discreet.  Burlingame  was  a  dead  shot  with  a  rifle. 
It  was  safer  to  decline  the  duel.  The  House  voted  to  expel 
Brooks.  He  contemptuously  exhibited  a  copy  of  his  resigna- 
tion, forwarded  to  the  Governor  of  his  State  ten  .days  before. 

Within  a  year  afterward  he  suddenly  died  of  acute  in- 
flammation of  the  throat.  Writing  to  Mr.  Matthews,  Mr. 
Colfax  says  : 

"  Brooks  has  gone,  as  you  say,  to  another  kingdom.  I  will  not 
quarrel  with  the  dispensations  of  Providence,  for  He  doeth  all  things 
right  ;  but  I  cannot  but  remember  that  Brooks  acknowledged  his  inten- 
tion of  killing  Sumner,  if  he  resisted  successfully,  and  that  the  Lord  took 
him  out  of  this  world  by  the  same  process  that  the  law  stops  the  life  of  a 
murderer.  No  one  here  doubts  that  he  bitterly  regretted  the  attack,  and 
was  breaking  down  under  it.  He  and  I  had  been  very  friendly  before  it, 
and  this  session  (February,  1857)  we  met  a  dozen  times  or  more,  brushing 
by  each  other  as  we  passed.  He  looked  me  in  the  eye  every  time,  but  I 
had  resolved  never  to  speak  to  him,  and  I  did  not.  His  death  absolutely 
shocked  his  colleagues  ;  and  when  Savage  made  the  infamous  remarks  at 
his  funeral  (at  which  Grow  and  I  rose  instantly  and  left  the  House, 
accompanied  by  nearly  all  the  Republicans),  Orr  and  McQueen,  of  the 
South  Carolina  delegation,  made  it  a  personal  matter  with  him  that  he 
should  strike  it  out  of  the  official  report  in  the  Globe" 

Mr.  Keitt  was  censured  by  the  House  for  his  connection 
with  the  assault,  and  he  resigned.  In  Washington,  as  in 
Kansas,  the  spirit  was  the  same. 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  99 

Early  in  June  the  Democratic  National  Convention  met 
in  Cincinnati,  declared  in  their  platform  that  neither  Con- 
gress nor  a  Territory  had  power  to  exclude  slavery  from  a 
Territory,  and  passing  over  both  Pierce  and  Douglas, 
nominated  Mr.  James  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  for 
President.  The  Republicans  met  a  week  later  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  in  their  platform  declared  that  it  was  the 
right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  preserve  the  Territories  free 
from  polygamy  and  slavery,  demanded  the  admission  into 
the  Union  of  free  Kansas,  and  favored  internal  improve- 
ments, including  a  Pacific  Railroad.  They  denounced 
slavery  extension,  the  fraudulent  government  and  reign  of 
terror  in  Kansas,  and  the  Ostend  Manifesto,  and  they 
nominated  John  C.  Fremont  for  President. 

A  concurrent  resolution,  fixing  the  day  and  hour  of  the 
adjournment  of  Congress,  having  been  adopted,  the  House, 
insisting  on  the  Colfax  Proviso  to  the  Army  Bill,  offered 
in  a  modified  form  by  Sherman,  and  the  Senate  rejecting  it, 
the  session  ended,  with  no  money  for  the  army.  The  Presi- 
dent convened  Congress  in  extra  session  on  the  2ist  of 
August.  Colfax's  private  letters  give  an  inside  view  of  the 
struggle  that  ensued.  August  2ist,  he  writes  :  "  We  have 
had  a  great  day.  The  Administration  and  all  the  people 
here  supposed  we  would  back  down,  of  course,  at  the  first 
vote.  But  we  faced  the  music,  and  we  beat  them  by  seven 
majority,  voting  the  twelve  millions,  but  with  the  proviso 
that  the  army  should  not  be  used  to  enforce  the  Border  Ruf- 
fian Code."  Next  day  :  "  We  stood  fire  again  to-day,  and 
astounded  the  Senate  by  voting  to  adhere,  which  means 
in  English,  never  to  give  up  our  point."  On  the  27th  : 
"  The  conference  committees  failed  to  agree  for  the  fourth 
time  to-night.  All  of  our  men  except  Campbell  and  one 
or  two  shaky  ones  stand  fire  like  veterans.  The  Senate 
are  astounded  and  indignant,  but  dare  not  as  yet  adjourn 
sine  die^  and  go  to  the  country  on  the  issue  between  them 
and  the  House.  We  shall  probably  be  beaten  two  or  three 
votes  in  the  end,  if  they  can  telegraph  in  all  their  absen- 
tees, as  we  have  lost  one  by  death,  and  they  have,  with  the 
Fillmoreites,  and  have  had  all  the  session  a  bare  majority 


100  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

over  us.  My  appointments  are  all  broken  up,  but  I  would 
not  leave  my  seat  if  my  re-election  depended  on  it.  It  is 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  country  that  the  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  dared  to  stand  out  against  a  Presi- 
dent and  Senate,  and  I  shall  stand  by  to  the  end.  In  the 
opening  of  my  Kansas  speech,  in  June,  I  was  the  first  to 
propose  such  a  stand  on  the  Army  Bill,  and  will  be  the  last 
to  desert  it."  As  he  anticipated,  the  House  was  beaten  at 
last,  IOT  to  98,  the  Army  Bill  passed  without  the  proviso, 
and  the  second  session  adjourned.1 

They  had  passed  a  bill  increasing  the  pay  of  Congress- 
men from  eight  dollars  a  day  while  in  session  to  three 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  made  it  apply  to  themselves. 
Colfax  in  vain  endeavored  to  have  the  bill  changed  so 
as  to  reduce  instead  of  increase  the  pay  of  Congressmen, 
and  in  vain  he  voted  against  the  bill  at  every  stage  of  its 
progress.2 

Referring  to  a  rumor  that  he  had  declined  a  renomi- 
nation,  he  had  written  home,  June  5th  : 

"  The  fact  is,  I  have  written  to  no  one  asking  him  to  go  for  my 
nomination,  and  don't  intend  to.  I  was  nominated  originally  without 
any  electioneering  on  my  part,  and  if  nominated  again,  it  will  be  done 
without  any  effort  on  my  part  to  influence  delegates  in  my  favor.  I  shall 

1.  July  10th  Mr.  Greeley  wrote  him  :  "  Hell  !  Schuyler,  adjourn  at  the  earliest  mo- 
ment, that's  all  I  have  to  say.    You  cannot  make  it  a  day  too  soon.    If  the  appropriation 
bills  should  fail,  why  should  we  cry  ?    I  believe  we  shall  yet  be  sold  out  on  eome  amend- 
ment to  the  appropriation  bills.    Be  sure  to  have  all  sorts  of  amendments  to  amendments 
in  readiness  to  be  offered  when  such  iniquities  come  in.    I  fear  you  will  kill  us  yet,  right 
there  in  Washington — in  the  House.1' 

And  August  27th  :  "  Are  you  all  mad  at  Washington,  or  am  I  a  natural  fool  ?  It  does 
seem  to  me  that  you  are  persisting  in  a  course  where  you  cannot  gain  anything,  and  are 
daily  exposed  to  ruin.  Banks  made  a  great  mistake  in  not  letting  the  Army  Bill  slip 
through  on  the  18th.  Now  you  will  lose  precious  time,  and  come  to  that  same  result,  or 
you  will  get  entangled  in  some  horrible  ruinous  compromise  and  destroyed.  I  pray  you 
to  hold  a  consultation  and  contrive  to  get  adjourned  at  the  earliest  moment  and  with 
the  least  possible  damage." 

Mr.  Sumner  writes,  August  20th  :  "  Stand  firm.  Do.  Save  the  proviso  to  the  Army 
Bill.  Save  Kansas.  Save  us  all  !" 

2.  On  the  adjournment  of  the  regular  session,  the  venerable  Joshua  R.  Giddings 
wrote  him  as  follows  :  "  In  a  few  hours  we  shall  separate  for  the  vacation,  and  perhaps 
forever.    As  we  part,  I  may  be  permitted  to  thank  you  for  the  interest    you  have 
manifested  in  the  cause  of  liberty.    Your  speeches  and  bearing  have  cheered  the  hearts 
of  many  lovers  of  freedom.    I  have  witnessed  them  with  emotions  of  pleasure,  which  I 
trust  will  be  increased  should  we  meet  again.    Interesting  events  have  transpired  in 
rapid  succession  since  we  met  here  in  December,  and  the  records  of  our  body  will  bear 
testimony  to  the  fidelity  with  which  each  member  has  discharged  his  duty." 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  IOI 

not  be  at  the  convention,  for  here  is  my  post  of  duty  till  Congress 
adjourns,  as  I  have  refused  even  to  pair  off,  except  on  one  or  two  local 
bills,  or  to  be  absent  from  my  seat  a  single  hour  while  in  session.  But 
whether  I  am  nominated  or  some  one  else,  which  must  be  just  as  the  con- 
vention chooses,  I  shall,  as  soon  as  Congress  adjourns,  take  the  stump 
and  canvass  the  district  for  the  cause  of  freedom,  no  matter  who  may  be 
nominated." 

The  Republican  District  Convention  met  July  23d,  at 
Plymouth,  and  nominated  him  for  the  Thirty-fifth  Con- 
gress by  acclamation.  A  letter  from  him,  which  might 
fairly  be  called  burning,  was  then  read.  '*  For,  gentle- 
men," says  the  writer,  "  the  question  of  this  canvass  is  not 
so  much  whether  black  men  shall  be  slaves  as  whether 
white  men  shall  be  free."  And  then  he  denounces  the  as- 
saults on  the  friends  and  champions  of  freedom  in  Kansas 
and  in  Washington  with  all  the  indignation  which  he  was 
capable  of  expressing. 

On  his  way  home  he  was  urged  to  speak  in  Cleveland, 
but  declined.  He  writes  Mrs.  Colfax,  who  was  at  a  water- 
cure,  September  4th  : 

"  I  reached  home  last  evening,  and  found  hundreds  of  people  at  the 
depot,  who  had  been  waiting  nearly  two  hours  (train  behind  time)  to 
welcome  me  home.  They  had  a  platform,  and  before  the  cars  started 
Judge  Turner  was  making  a  welcoming  speech,  the  people  in  the  train, 
who  began  to  see  through  it  by  the  flags  and  music,  waving  their  hand- 
kerchiefs and  joining  in  the  shouts.  It  quite  overcame  me,  and  I  could 
scarcely  find  words  to  respond.  Then  they  marched,  ladies  and  all,  to 
my  residence,  nearly  a  mile,  you  know,  three  to  four  hundred  of  them, 
when  I  again  thanked  them.  At  the  depot  there  were  over  five  hundred, 
and  many  had  gone  away,  tired  of  waiting.  At  Mishawaka  a  large  crowd 
had  assembled,  with  many  of  whom  I  shook  hands  while  the  train 
stopped.  I  open  the  canvass  to-morrow."  1 

Again  to  his  wife,  September  7th  : 

"  I  never  knew  what  friendship  was  before  ;  it  gushes  and  overflows 
upon  me  from  every  side.  Old  men  shake  hands  and  shed  tears  ;  the 
ladies  insist  on  shaking  hands  all  round  ;  and  our  young  voters  are  full 
of  the  most  earnest  enthusiasm.  I  cannot  describe  to  you  what  over- 
whelming tokens  of  the  confidence  and  approval  of  my  constituents  have 

1.  Mr.  Defrees  writes  him  from  Indianapolis  :  "It  did  me  good  to  see  how  our  old 
South  Benders  received  you  on  your  return  ;  it  is  a  glorious  town,  full  of  glorious  peo- 
pie." 


102  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

been  showered  upon  me  the  past  two  or  three  days.  It  has  been  almost 
impossible  for  me  to  get  about  the  streets  ;  and  the  day  I  spoke  here, 
Friday,  I  had  to  stand  an  hour  in  front  of  my  house,  bowing  thanks  to 
the  long  procession  of  wagons  and  carriages,  with  hundreds  of  flags, 
and  people  shouting  and  waving  handkerchiefs,  as  they  passed  our 
house.  Then  the  Mishawaka  Light  Guards  came,  all  in  uniform,  and 
escorted  me  to  the  Court  House  to  speak.  There,  inside,  were  nearly  a 
thousand  ladies  ;  and  outside,  with  the  most  pitiless  rain  of  the  season 
pouring  on  them,  were  three  thousand  people,  who  stood  there  while  I 
spoke  to  them  three  and  a  half  hours  from  the  window  of  the  second  story 
of  the  Court  House,  the  audience  even  larger  at  the  close  than  at  the 
commencement.  But  with  all  their  extraordinary  manifestations  of 
regard,  I  do  not  consider  my  election  certain.  I  would  get  three  thou- 
sand majority  of  the  native  and  Americanized  population  ;  but  the  three 
or  four  thousand  foreign  vote  in  the  district  appear  solid  against  us  as 
yet.  On  Monday  we  commence  the  joint  canvass,  and  close  at  New 
Carlisle  the  Thursday  before  the  election.' ' 

September  loth  :  "  I  have  made  my  fifth  speech  to-day 
in  the  open  air  to  a  large  crowd,  as  usual.  Travelled  forty- 
eight  miles  on  Monday,  and  made  a  three  hours'  speech. 
At  Rochester  they  had  but  two  days'  notice,  yet  the  county 
was  out  en  masse,  many  coming  eighteen  miles.  They 
raised  a  pole  one  hundred  and  seventy  feet  high.  I  com- 
menced speaking  at  three,  and  held  the  crowd  till  half-past 
six,  after  sunset.  The  Republicans  are  full  of  excitement, 
industrious,  and  enthusiastic  ;  but  our  enemies  work  hard 
— desperately  indeed,  and  spend  money  profusely.  Throat 
still  holds  out  well."  Next  day  :  "In  the  northern  part 
of  Cass  County,  in  the  woods,  miles  from  the  nearest 
village,  three  to  four  thousand  present,  procession  and 
banners,  bands  and  glee  clubs,  ladies  innumerable,  spoke 
three  hours  and  a  half  in  the  open  air,  throat  giving  out  ; 
but  the  crowds  can't  get  into  the  houses,  and  must  do  the 
best  I  can."  At  Francesville,  on  the  iyth  :  "I  shook 
hands  with  twenty-one  men  who  voted  against  me  in  1854, 
and  are  for  me  now  ;  throat  broken  down  twice,  but  cold- 
water  bandages  used  every  night  brings  it  out  again." 

He  is  now  in  the  prime  of  his  young  manhood  ;  the  ex- 
periences of  age  have  not  begun  to  chill  the  enthusiasms  of 
youth.  He  is  among  his  neighbors  and  friends,  whom  he 
loves,  and  in  whose  houses  he  is  already  beginning  to  be 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  103 

held  as  an  elder  son.  He  is  indignant  at  the  attempted 
rape  of  a  virgin  world  by  the  black  forces  of  slavery. 
Every  energy  of  his  warm  heart  and  keen  intellect  is  en- 
listed in  the  cause  of  which  he  is  an  apostle.  Years  of 
training  have  made  him  perfect  .master  of  his  resources. 
The  people  are  in  full  sympathy  with  him,  and  roused  as 
never  before  nor  since.  No  conditions  can  be  imagined 
more  stimulating  to  a  noble  ambition.  The  path  of  duty 
is  pre-eminently  the  way  to  glory.  He  speaks  with  the 
rush  of  a  spring  torrent  ;  women  weep  as  they  listen,  and 
nen  rend  the  air  with  shouts. 

At    Logansport,    the    home   of    his    opponent,    Judge 
Stuart,  the  judge  opened  the  discussion,  speaking  seventy- 
five  minutes,  with  no  response  except  "  That  was  right  !" 
when  he  attacked  the  young  man's  votes  in  Congress.     The 
latter  followed   in  a  speech  of  ninety  minutes.     The  ap- 
plause was  a  steady  roar.     Women   and  many  men  wept. 
"John  D.  Defrees  said   he  couldn't  keep  his  eyes  dry." 
Having  fifteen  minutes  to  close,  Stuart  spoke  seven  min- 
utes,  and  asked  :    "  Will  you  vote  for  a  man  who  thus 
speaks  and  votes?"     And   the  tremendous   "Yes"  which 
came  back   so  discouraged  him  that   he   ceased,   stepped 
down,  and  walked  off  almost  alone.     "  It  took  me  a  long 
vhile  to  get  back  to  the  hotel,"  writes  Coif  ax  to  his  wife. 
*  Every  one  seemed  anxious  to  shake  hands  and  give  me  a 
'God  bless  you/  '      The  street  echoed  and  re-echoed  with 
'  cheers  for  Colfax,"  and  he  was  called  out  in  the  evening 
to  a  serenade.     Judge  Stuart's  friends  had  expected,  from 
lis  judicial  reputation,  that  he  would  overmatch  Colfax  on 
tie  stump.     "  Stuart  has   improved  decidedly  during  the 
jdnt  canvass,"  his  opponent  writes;  "but  the  tide  is  all 
\\th  us  in  the  western  counties."    Messrs.  Caleb  B.  Smith, 
Jhn  F.  Miller,  W.  G.  George,  A.  Anderson,  G.  C.  Merri- 
fild,  John  D.  Defrees,  T.  F.  Bringhurst,   and   Horace  P. 
Eddie  supported  Colfax,  while  Dr.  Eddy  and  others  as- 
sited   Stuart.     "We  have  a  sixty-mile  drive  to-morrow 
acoss  the  Kankakee."     In  the  outskirts  of  Rensselaer  the 
cavassers  were  met  by  sixty-eight  uniformed    mounted 
caple,  and  escorted  into  town.     A  Republican  procession 


104  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

at  Bourbon,  dispersing  and  off  guard,  was  attacked  by 
railroad  hands,  and  a  man  or  two  left  for  dead.  "  I  feel 
sometimes  very  weary  with  the  constant  excitement  through 
which  I  have  to  pass,  and  the  people  were  never  so  warm 
before.  But  my  throat,  imder  the  wet-bandage  treatment, 
improves,  speaking  in  the  open  air  ;  yesterday  it  was  clear 
as  a  bell,  better  than  before  I  started."  He  spoke  five 
hours  on  the  day  preceding  the  election. 

On  election-day,  at  South  Bend,  the  entire  population 
were  in  the  streets.     "  Never  did  a  man  have  such  friends 
before.     Think  of  Mr.  Chapin  working  at  the  polls  and  at- 
tending night  meetings  !    And  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ames  travel- 
ling one  hundred   and  seventy  miles  to  vote  for  me,  and 
returning  the  same  day  ;  and  of  the  Methodist  Conference 
breaking  up  their  session  at  Crawfordsville  in  hot  haste,  so 
that  members  might  get  back  in  time  to  vote.     I  have  seen 
scores  of  old  farmers  who  say  they  would  rather  have  lost 
their  farms  than  to  have  had  me  beaten.     Dr.  Wright  got 
me  into  a  quarrel  at  the  polls  about  Know-Nothingism, 
but  three  hundred  friends  gathered  in  an  instant,  and  would 
have  settled  him   if  he  had   touched  me.     They  imported 
fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  votes  into  the  swamp-land- 
ditches  and  along  the  railroads,  coid  but  for  great  gains  in 
the  native  vote  I  should  have  been  defeated.1     We  could 
not  touch  the  foreign  vote,  but  all  others   that  could  be 
were  secured."  The  charge  of  Know-Nothingism  was  urgec 
against  him   with  great  persistence  ;  other  charges   wen 
that  he  was  an  Abolitionist,  a  Disunionist,  a  Prohibition 
ist.     In   spite  of  all,  he  ran  ahead  of  the  State  ticket  ij 
every  county,  and  did  better,   proportionately,   than  an^ 
other  Congressional  candidate  in  the  State.     His  majorit 
was  1036  in  a  poll  of  24,816.     Such  were  a  return  home,  . 
canvass,  and  an  election  in  the  days  of  1856. 

The  next  day  after  the  election  found  him  at  Chicagc 
following  Banks  in  an  hour's  speech  at  a  great  Fremor. 
meeting.  Both  he  and  Banks  feared  the  game  was  u) 

1.  "In  1852,  with  1851  taxable  polls  in  St.  Joseph  County,  the  votes  were  2006  ;ti 
1854,  with  2051  taxable  polls,  there  were  2354  votes  ;  now,  with  2426  taxable  polls,  « 
vote  was  3253."— South  Bend  Register,  Oct.  23,  1856. 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  IO5 

through  the  divisions  and  subserviency  of  the  North.  He 
spent  a  week  with  the  State  Central  Committee  at  Indian- 
apolis, endeavoring  to  make  another  rally  for  the  Presi- 
dential election  in  November.  "  But  there  is  no  hope  of 
carrying  Indiana,"  he  writes.  "  We  have  been  beaten  by 
fraudulent  voting  all  over  the  State,  and  if  we  could  pre- 
vent that  the  Fillmore  men  would  knife  us  effectually,  I 
fear.  Our  friends  are  disheartened,  and  I  share  it  myself, 
though  I  say  nothing."- 

Colonel  Fremont  wrote  him  that  the  Republicans  had 
carried  Pennsylvania  on  Congressmen,  by  later  advices, 
and  thought  there  was  still  hope.  He  canvassed  the 
*'  Pocket,"  South-western  Indiana,  speaking  at  Sullivan, 
Princeton,  Vincennes,  to  crowded  and  enthusiastic  houses, 
returning  in  time  to  make  a  few  more  speeches  at  and  near 
home.  But  it  availed  not.  "It  is  a  dark  and  rainy  day, 
which  I  trust  may  not  be  a  presage  of  the  election  to-mor- 
row ;  but  I  am  oppressed  with  fears  and  doubts,  and  the 
dark  shadow  of  a  coming  defeat  seems  to  loom  up  before 
me."  Fremont  was  beaten,  and  now,  if  not  then,  we  can 
bear  it  stoically.  The  fruit  was  not  yet  ripe  for  plucking. 

November  nth  he  addressed  Mrs.  Colfax  from  the  New 
York  Tribune  office  :  "  This  afternoon  I  went  to  Colonel 
Fremont's  ;  saw  Jessie,  who  bears  the  result  with  forti- 
tude. The  Colonel  was  out.  Took  dinner  with  Mr. 
Greeley,  and  am  going  to-night  to  hear  the  Governor- 
elect,  John  A.  King,  and  George  W.  Curtis,  the  Howadji, 
make  Fremont  speeches.  Everybody  is  for  running  Fre- 
mont again."  Mr.  Greeley  added  a  postscript:  "Mr. 
Colfax  tells  me  you  lack  faith,  and  are  downcast  at  the  re- 
sult of  our  election.  I  think  we  have  no  reason  to  be  dis- 
couraged. We  have  made  a  great  beginning,  and  I  trust 
we  have  helped  Kansas  by  putting  all  the  States  west  of 
yours  under  the  government  of  our  friends.  I  am  tired 
and  sore,  and  a  little  inclined  to  rest  and  quiet,  but  Kansas 
will  be  free." 

Mr.  Greeley  gave  him  a  letter  to  Edmund  Quincy,  of 
Boston.  "  The  bearer  is  my  friend,  Schuyler  Colfax,  who 
is  as  worthy  a  gentleman  -as  a  member  of  Congress  well 


106  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

can  be — ex-members  will  just  do  if  they  improve  their  op- 
portunities— [Greeley  was  an  ex-member].  As  our  Indi- 
anaized  New  Yorker  and  incipient  Abolitionist,  I  trust 
you  may  find  him  worth  knowing  if  not  studying."  No- 
vember i2th  :  "  I  spent  night  before  last,  or  rather  the 
evening,  at  Colonel  Fremont's.  He  bears  the  defeat  mag- 
nificently ;  no  complaint  or  murmur,  or  even  regret  falls 
from  his  lips.  He  will  be  out  with  a  letter  in  which  he 
will  allude  to  the  falsehoods  against  him,  and  will  say, 
among  other  things,  that  he  is  a  Protestant,  and  not  a 
Catholic.  The  Republicans  here  are  full  of  grit — no  give- 
up — fuller  of  elasticity  and  zeal  than  any  defeated  party  I 
ever  saw.  They  are  keeping  up  the  clubs,  still  working, 
and  organizing  for  1860,  all  for  Fremont,  but  many  in 
favor  of  another  Vice-President — some  Southern  man, 
Cassius  M.  Clay,  John  F.  Botts,  or  Kenneth  Rayner." 

In  Boston  he  visited  Mr.  Burlingame,  who  was  ill  from 
overwork  in  the  canvass  ;  met  Speaker  Banks,  Governor 
Gardner,  Mr.  Livermore  (Burlingame's  father-in-law), 
Josiah  Quincy,  Sr.,  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.,  Theodore  Parker, 
Henry  W.  Longfellow  ;  missed  Senator  Sumner,  both  at 
Boston  and  Cambridge  ;  and  then  he  went  to  Springfield 
to  see  his  friend  Bowles  and  Congressman  Chaffee.  "  Kind- 
ness has  met  me  here  on  every  side,"  he  writes.  "The 
Republicans  wished  to  give  me  a  supper,  and  had  arranged 
with  Burlingame  for  it,  but  I  declined — rightly,  I  think." 
November  2pth  he  arrived  in  Washington,  and  writes  : 
"  Burlingame  has  just  reached  the  city  this  evening, 
though  in  miserable  health.  He  was  determined,  if  possible, 
to  be  in  his  seat  Monday."  Writing  to  the  committee  of 
invitation  of  the  Burlingame  banquet,  he  compared  the 
recent  Republican  defeat  to  the  action  of  Bunker  Hill, 
where  those  who  finally  retreated  won  the  victory. 
"  Gathering  fresh  inspiration  from  their  example,  the 
friends  of  freedom,  now  as  then,  have  resolved  to  turn  a 
canvass  into  a  campaign,  and  will  labor  on  and  ever  until, 
by  the  recognition  of  the  doctrine  of  the  fathers,  that 
slavery  is  sectional,  freedom  national,  we  indeed  proclaim 
to  the  world  as  the  American  motto,  that  eloquent  senti- 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  IO? 

ment  emblazoned    on   your    Faneuil    Hall,  '  Liberty   and 
Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable.'  ' 

The  stand  taken  by  the  House  in  the  last  session  had 
paralyzed  the  Administration.  Mr.  John  Sherman  said 
afterward  that  the  report  of  the  House  Kansas  Committee 
caused  the  removal  not  only  of  Governor  Shannon,  but  of 
President  Pierce.  When  the  Presidential  election  was 
drawing  near  Shannon  was  superseded  by  Mr.  John  W. 
Geary,  of  Pennsylvania,  with  instructions  to  pacify  Kansas, 
and  reports  were  sent  East  that  he  had  pacified  Kansas. 
While  the  partisans  of  slavery  killed,  burned,  plundered, 
and  harried,  the  partisans  of  freedom  kept  going  in,  set- 
tled, fenced,  planted,  builded.  It  had  become  manifest 
that  the  latter  would,  if  pressed  too  far,  meet  their  enemies 
with  their  own  weapons.  The  marauding  war  of  Missouri 
on  Kansas  languished  when  there  were  blows  to  take  as 
well  as  give.  Many  of  the  participants,  like  the  successive 
Governors,  grew  ashamed  of  the  brutality  of  their  dra- 
gooning work,  joined  the  other  side,  and  settled  down  to 
the  cultivation  of  corn.  It  became  clear  that  neither  Kan- 
sas nor  the  country  would  permit  the  army  to  be  used  to 
enforce  the  "  bogus  laws"  without  armed  resistance.  Had 
the  attempt  been  persisted  in,  as  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
year  (1856),  James  Buchanan  could  not  have  been  elected 
President.  There  was  a  material  back-down  on  the  part 
of  the  Administration.  The  Democrats  elected  their  Presi- 
dential ticket  only  by  repudiating,  so  far  as  they  could,  the 
bad  work  in  Kansas  and  by  the  decoy  of  Mr.  Fillmore's 
third-party  candidacy. 

When  the  short  session  convened  in  December,  1856, 
assurances  were  given  that  the  usurping  Legislature,  on 
advice  from  Washington,  would  repeal  the  "  bogus  laws/' 
and  co-operate  with  Governor  Geary  in  providing  for  the 
fair  election  of  a  convention,  the  next  season,  to  form  a 
State  constitution.  The  bare  majority  of  the  opposition 
at  the  previous  session,  which  after  the  election  of  Speaker 
always  disappeared  in  emergencies,  was  now  further  re- 
duced by  Administration  gains  in  filling  vacancies.  The 
Administration  won  its  first  victory  by  seating  Whitfield 


108  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

as  Delegate  from  Kansas.  Nevertheless,  the  House  passed 
a  bill  for  the  relief  of  Kansas — repealing  the  "  bogus 
laws"  and  providing  for  the  election  of  a  new  Legislature 
— which  was  tabled  in  the  Senate.  Important  measures  of 
the  session  were  an  Enabling  Act  for  Minnesota,  an  act 
enlarging  the  free  list  and  reducing  the  tariff,  an  act  to 
aid  in  laying  a  telegraph  cable  across  the  Atlantic,  and 
acts  providing  for  an  overland  telegraph  and  a  wagon  and 
mail  road  to  the  Pacific. 

In  connection  with  the  tariff  bill,  Colfax  interested  him- 
self in  getting  sugar  placed  on  the  free  list  with  the  poor 
man's  other  luxuries,  tea  and  coffee,  contending  in  a  set 
speech,  February  5th,  1857,  that  the  existing  ad  valorem 
duty  of  thirty  per  cent  was  as  impotent  to  sustain  unprofit- 
able sugar  works  as  it  was  needless  for  revenue,  the 
Treasury  being  full  to  overflowing,  and  sugar-planting, 
after  sixty  years  of  high  protection,  in  a  moribund  con- 
dition. These  positions  he  supported  with  an  abundance 
of  statistical  facts,  showing  his  mastery  of  the  subject. 
Unable  to  carry  this,  he  urged  the  substitution  of  a  spe- 
cific duty  of  one  and  a  half  cents  on  brown  and  of  two  cents 
on  loaf  sugar  per  pound,  for  the  absurd  ad  valorem  duty, 
which,  rising  with  the  price  of  sugar,  increased  the  more 
the  less  it  was  needed,  and  vice  versa.  The  Legislature  of 
his  State  supported  him  by  memorializing  Congress  on  the 
subject.  No  doubt,  opportunity  serving,  nine  out  of  ten 
of  the  voters  of  the  entire  country  would  have  sustained 
him  ;  but  his  proposition  was  rejected.  All  other  interests 
affected  by  the  bill  had  their  agents  on  hand  to  look  out 
for  them,  while  free  sugar,  being  everybody's,  was  really 
nobody's  business.  It  had  to  stand  on  its  own  merits,  sus- 
tained by  such  members  only  as  felt  it  to  be  a  duty  ;  and 
they  had  to  meet,  as  was  to  be  expected,  the  united  opposi- 
tion of  the  Louisiana  delegation.  Since  that  day  the  coun- 
try must  have  paid  in  bounty  to  the  sugar-planters  of 
Louisiana  five  times  as  much  as  the  entire  interest  is  worth, 
and  free  sugar  is  still  in  the  future.  Colfax  was  an  advo- 
cate of  protection,  as  long  as  he  lived,  but  of  protection 
judiciously  applied.  At  that  time  he  believed  that  free 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  IOQ 

sugar  would  strengthen  the  new  party  of  freedom,  and  he 
could  not  appreciate  the  consistency  of  Protectionists  who 
opposed  free  sugar  while  favoring  free  salt  and  free  wool. 
Taken  vigorously  to  task  by  Mr.  Greeley  in  the  Tribune  for 
alleged  recreancy  to  protection,  he  defended  his  position 
with  equal  vigor  in  the  columns  of  that  paper.1 

Certain  so-called  "  corruption  cases,"  affecting  several 
members  of  Congress  and  some  press  reporters,  threw  the 
country  and  Congress  into  a  panic  in  the  course  of  this 
session.  Mr.  J.  W.  Simonton  having  charged  corruption 
in  connection  with  the  passage  of  certain  bills  in  his  letters 
to  the  New  York  Times,  and  Mr.  Paine,  of  North  Caro- 
lina, having  stated  that  a  fellow-member  had  offered  him 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  for  his  vote  in  a  given  case,  a 
special  committee  was  appointed  to  investigate  the  sub- 
ject. Simonton  proved  a  contumacious  witness,  and  it 
was  proposed  to  commit  him  to  custody  pending  a  hearing 
at  the  Bar  of  the  House.  Colfax  thereupon  contended  for 
his  right  to  be  heard  at  once  on  being  taken  into  custody, 
and  this  course  was  adopted.  After  listening  to  his  reason 
for  not  answering — that  it  would  be  a  breach  of  confidence 
— the  House  ordered  him  to  be  kept  in  close  custody  by 

1.  Mr.  Greeley  writes  him,  on  Christmas  day,  1856  :  "  I  have  just  been  talking  to  you 
about  sugar  (in  the  Tribune),  with  tears  in  my  eyes,  almost.  You  seem  to  me  (in  the 
milder  sense)  a  very  unprincipled  politician.  I  don't  know  whether  this  sugar  move  isn't 
worse  than  your  vote  to  extend  the  right  of  suffrage  to  aliens  or  your  Know-Nothing 
obligation  to  deprive  adopted  citizens  of  the  substantial  benefits  of  citizenship.  [The 
reader  knows  that  he  never  took  that  obligation.]  I  think  I  shall  have  to  get  Fremont 
to  come  out  a  red-mouthed  Catholic,  to  qualify  him  for  your  ardent  support  in  1860. 
Convey  my  most  devout  wishes  for  all  good  fortune  to  Mrs.  Colfax,  who  isn't  a  politician, 
except  reasonably,  and  who  shall  have  my  vote  for  member  of  Congress,  if  she  wants  it, 
when  Women's  Rights  are  acknowledged.  I  wish  the  present  Congress  could  be  sent 
home,  and  the  members'  wives  left  to  legislate  in  their  stead.  Do  you  think  they  would 
have  passed  that  scandalous  Compensation  Bill  ?  No,  sir  ;  not  by  a  heap  !  Remember 
me  to  two  or  three  of  the  best  folks  in  Washington  ;  try  to  get  that  Compensation  Bill 
amended  to  some  purpose  ;  and  don't  forget  that  the  egg-nog  (is  there  another  g  ?)  that 
they  dispense  about  these  days  in  Washington  is  a  very  slippery  drink  in  icy  weather, 
and  not  precisely  accordant  with  the  principles  of  the  Sons  of  Temperance." 

Again,  on  the  28th  :  "I  am  sorry  the  hardness  of  your  heart  and  blindness  of  your 
understanding  didn't  permit  you  to  see  the  perverseness  of  your  course  with  regard  to 
sugar ;  but  I  won't  argue  the  case  over  again.  '  If  they  believe  not  Moses  and  the 
prophets,'  etc.  Let  sorghum  get  half  the  start  that  wool  has  to-day,  and  I'll  vote  with 
you  to  take  the  duty  off  of  sugar,  as  I  would  now  vote  to  take  it  off  of  wool,  not  shufflingly, 
as  Lew  Campbell's  bill  does,  but  manfully  and  wholly.  As  to  your  Know-Nothingism 
and  the  opposite,  we'll  agree  to  let  one  of  them  balance  the  other,  and  hold  you  just 
about  right  on  five  years'  probation,  with  safeguards  against  frauds." 


110  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

the  Sergeant-at-Arms,  if  he  persisted  in  his  contumacy  till 
the  close  of  the  session.  Colfax  voted  for  this  order,  on  the 
ground  that  after  what  he  had  said,  tainting  the  whole 
House,  Simonton  should,  in  justice  to  the  innocent,  give 
the  name  of  the  accused. 

The  House  imprisoned  Simonton,  and  the  investigating 
committee  at  once  reported  a  bill,  breaking  down  all  the 
protection  which  the  common  law  throws  around  a  wit- 
ness, and  clothing  a  committee  of  Congress  with  Star 
Chamber  powers  in  such  cases.  With  eleven  others,  Col- 
fax  voted  against  this  bill,  believing  it  to  be  his  duty  not 
to  give  "  the  vote  of  our  district  for  such  hasty  and  ex- 
traordinary legislation."  The  Senate  quickly  and  almost 
unanimously  passed  the  bill,  few  members  of  either  House 
actually  approving  it,  still  fewer  voting  against  it,  for  fear 
of  misconstruction. 

The  investigating  committee  proceeded  with  its  work, 
finally  reporting  a  resolution  to  expel  four  members  of  the 
House  and  exclude  two  reporters  from  the  floor.  A  long 
and  heated  debate  occurred  near  the  end  of  the  session, 
Colfax  unflinchingly  maintaining  that  these  men,  as  all 
others,  should  have  fair  treatment.  He  would  certainly 
vote  to  expel  for  bribery,  he  said,  but  not  on  impeached, 
and  surely  not  on  secret,  ex-parte,  mutilated,  and  partly 
suppressed  testimony.  Two  members  resigned,  no  one 
was  expelled,  and  the  reporters  were  excluded  from  the 
floor.  Of  the  many  men  who  in  this  instance  displayed 
the  merely  animal  instincts  which  most  men  do  in  a  panic, 
Colfax  was  not  one. 

The  burden  of  the  argument  for  the  act  was  that  it  was 
necessary  to  ferret  out  corruption  among    Congressmen. 
Yet  the  first  case  in  which  its  functions  were  invoked  was 
the  investigation  of  John  Brown's  raid  on  Harper's  Ferry, 
a  political  case  ;  and  the  contumacious  witness  defeated  its 
purpose  by  submitting  to  imprisonment  until  the  session  had 
expired.     The  Thirty-seventh  Congress  repealed  the  prom 
inent  features  of  the  law,  as  thieves  were  enriching  them 
selves   under  it,  and  avoiding  prosecution  by  going  before 
investigating  committees  and  testifying  to  their  own  guilt. 


THIRTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS.  Ill 

Years  afterward  Colfax  wrote  in  the  New  York  Inde- 
pendent that  he  and  Burlingame  had  agreed  together  that, 
despite  the  threats  of  political  ostracism,  they  would  vote 
against  the  bill,  if  not  amended,  even  though  it  should 
consign  them  to  private  life. 

"  For  that  vote,  in  his  ensuing  Congressional  canvass,  the  writer  was 
most  bitterly  arraigned  and  denounced,  on  the  stump,  in  the  press,  and 
in  all  possible  ways.  Thousands  of  circulars,  charging  him  with  shield" 
ing  Congressional  corruption,  were  scattered  broadcast,  as  well  as  carried 
by  colporteurs  into  nearly  every  house  in  his  district.  But  he  cheerfully 
accepted  the  issue,  and  in  a  hundred  public  speeches  proclaimed  and 
justified  this  vote,  for  which  he  was  so  severely  condemned  by  his 
opponents.  The  result  was  that  his  majority  was  nearly  double  that 
which  he  had  received  at  his  previous  election,  five  to  seven  hundred 
ahead  of  the  State  ticket  in  his  district,  proving,  if  proof  were  needed, 
that  it  is  better  for  men  in  public  life  to  seek  to  be  right  than  to  be 
popular." 

All  the  endeavors  of  the  Western  members  to  call  up 
the  River  and  Harbor  bills,  inclusive  of  the  bill  which  Mr. 
Colfax  had  introduced  to  continue  the  improvement  of  the 
one  Lake  port  of  Indiana,  at  Michigan  City,  were  de- 
feated by  "  filibustering  ;"  and  as  they  could  not  com- 
mand a  vote  to  suspend  the  rules,  the  bills  failed.  On  the 
last  day  of  the  session  Mr.  Colfax  procured  the  passage  of 
a  resolution  increasing  the  pay  of  the  hard-working  Journal 
Clerk  of  the  House  to  the  same  amount  paid  the  Chief 
Clerk  under  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate. 

Some  time  during  this  session  his  wife's  sister,  Mrs. 
McClaughry,  wrote  Mrs.  Colfax  : 

"  William  Hunt,  one  of  our  neighbors,  who  recently  emigrated  to  Lee 
County,  111.,  says  '  Colfax  '  is  one  of  their  watchwords,  and  the  people 
worship  him  there.  If  ever  you  have  experienced  sensations  of  pride 
and  happiness  so  intense  as  to  bring  tears  into  your  eyes  and  it  was 
impossible  to  repress  them,  you  can  judge  with  what  feelings  I  have 
watched  Schuyler  Colfax's  course  in  Congress,  and  heard  encomiums 
passed  upon  him  by  those  whose  opinions  I  have  always  deemed  worthy 
of  honor.  And  when  Mr.  Briggs  took  me  by  the  hand  and  said  to  me, 
'  A  nobler  man  and  one  more  worthy  of  honor  than  Schuyler  Colfax 
never  lived,'  I  was  foolish  enough  to  cry  about  it." 

Such  was  the  commentary  of  one  of  his  fair  country- 
women on  his  services  in  his  first  Congress. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THIRTY-FIFTH    CONGRESS. 

1857-1859. 

COLFAX  AND  WHEELER. — EDITORIAL  COMMENTS  ON  CURRENT  EVENTS. 
— THE  FREE-STATE  PARTY  IN  KANSAS  CARRY  THE  LEGISLATURE. — 
THE  LECOMPTON  CONSTITUTION. — CONGRESS  ORGANIZED  BY  THE  AD- 
MINISTRATION.— ON  THE  INDIAN  AFFAIRS  COMMITTEE. — ATTITUDE 
AND  RECORD. — ATTEMPT  TO  ADMIT  KANSAS  UNDER  AN  ALIEN  CON- 
STITUTION.— DEFECTION  OF  DOUGLAS. — CONFIDENTIAL  CONFERENCES 
WITH  DOUGLAS. — DOUGLAS  AND  BUCHANAN  DIFFER  BUT  SLIGHTLY. 
— COLFAX  SPEAKS  AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  INIQUITY. — RENOMI- 
NATED,  His  OPPONENT  AVOIDS  A  JOINT  CANVASS. — "  A  PROUD  PER- 
SONAL TRIUMPH." — VOTES  FOR  THE  ADMISSION  OF  OREGON. — TEN- 
DENCY OF  THE  TIMES,  EDITORIAL  CORRESPONDENCE. — AGAINST  LAND- 
GRABBING,  ESPECIALLY  TO  EXTEND  SLAVERY. — THE  SLAVE  POWER 

CRUMBLES  IN  THIS  CONGRESS. 

UPON  the  adjournment,  sine  die,  of  the  Thirty-fourth 
Congress,  Mr.  Colfax  resumed  his  editorial  duties,  an- 
nouncing that  he  had  associated  Mr.  Alfred  Wheeler  with 
him,  in  both  the  editing  and  publishing  of  the  Register. 
The  paper  would  be  found  in  its  humble  sphere,  he  said, 
faithful  to  the  rights  of  freedom,  although  Presidents  and 
Senates,  Courts  and  Cabinets,  should  combine  to  crush 
them  out.  For  eleven  years,  less  occasional  absences,  he 
had  conducted  the  paper  alone,  a  work  as  pleasant  to  him 
as  he  trusted  the  result  of  it  had  been  to  his  patrons. 
Each  twelvemonth  had  seen  the  circle  of  its  readers  en- 
large, and  now,  as  for  some  years  past,  the  Register  had  more 
subscribers  than  any  weekly  paper  in  the  State  outside  of 
the  capital.  During  the  whole  of  that  long  term  it  had 
never  failed,  not  even  when  the  office  was  burned,  to  ap- 
pear on  the  day  of  publication  ;  and  the  new  firm,  Colfax 
&  Wheeler,  would  endeavor  to  maintain  the  same  regular- 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  113 

ity.  In  the  following  October  they  moved  the  paper  into 
a  new  brick  block  on  Michigan  Street,  which  Colfax  had 
built,  long  thereafter  called  '  The  Register  Building." 
This  arrangement  left  him  more  at  liberty  to  answer  calls 
for  orations  and  addresses,  which  came  from  far  and  near. 
After  making  three  thousand  miles  in  ten  days  on  this  duty, 
he  says  :  "  Were  home,  as  we  intended,  in  time  to  vote,  and 
ready  to  leave  again  on  another  telegraphic  call,  though 
we  should  like  more  than  eight  minutes  to  get  ready  in, 
which  is  all  we  had  on  our  last  trip  to  New  York." 

President  Pierce' s  officers  in  Kansas  had  been  mostly 
got  rid  of  during  the  past  winter  by  removal  or  resigna- 
tion. On  the  meeting  of  the  short  session  of  the  last  Con- 
gress, he  had  nominated  a  successor  to  Judge  "Jeffries" 
Lecompte,  but  the  Senate  hung  up,  and  finally  refused  to 
confirm  the  nomination.  The  fraudulent  Legislature  had 
held  a  session,  and  behaved  worse  than  ever,  approving  the 
acts  of  Judge  Lecompte,  providing  for  a  constitutional 
convention  to  perpetuate  its  regime,  and  passing  over  the 
Governor's  veto  a  bill  making  resistance  to  the  slave  code 
rebellion,  punishable  by  death. 

Simultaneously  with  Mr.  Buchanan's  inauguration,  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  was  promulgated,  declaring  the  slave 
a  chattel,  and  slavery  existent  everywhere,  by  virtue  of  the 
Constitution.  On  this  the  editor  of  \.\\t  Register  comments  : 

"  By  evident  concert  with  Buchanan — for  he  refers  to  it  in  his  in- 
augural— the  five  members  of  the  Supreme  Bench,  who  represent  but 
seven  millions  out  of  the  twenty-one  millions  of  the  white  people  of  our 
land,  pronounce  a  decision  striking  down  the  dearest  rights  of  the  remain- 
ing fourteen  millions  ;  proclaiming  that  slavery  has  rights  paramount  to 
all  others,  exceeding  what  Calhoun  and  his  nullifying  associates  ever 
claimed  for  it  ;  and  annihilating,  at  one  blow,  ordinances,  compromises, 
and  the  most  time-honored  principles  of  our  country's  fathers." 

Meanwhile  the  troubles  long  brewing  in  Utah,  growing 
out  of  the  Mormon  scheme  to  found  a  State  within  the  ex- 
isting State,  had  culminated  in  the  flight  of  the  Federal 
judges  and  other  officers  from  Utah  Territory.  The  Regis- 
ter remarks  upon  this  : 

"  The  black  spot  which  once  a  single  man's  hand  could  have  covered 


114  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

and  perhaps  erased  has  now  grown  to  monstrous  proportions  ;  and  the 
long  years  it  has  been  allowed  to  increase,  under  the  protection  of 
squatter  sovereignty  and  Presidential  indifference,  are,  we  fear,  to  be 
atoned  for  in  the  conflict  which  seems  impending  and  inevitable  between 
the  bandit  rulers  of  Utah  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States." 

When  President  Pierce  retired  Governor  Geary  re- 
signed, and  stole  out  of  Kansas,  as  if  in  fear  o-f  his  life.  He 
had  been  thwarted  at  every  point  by  the  pro-slavery  party, 
and,  in  violation  of  pledges,  abandoned  by  the  President. 
Ex-Secretary  Robert  J.  Walker,  of  Mississippi,  was  ap- 
pointed, not  as  an  ordinary  routine  Governor,  but  as  a 
High  Commissioner,  to  restore  order  and  peace.  He  re- 
mained in  the  East  till  the  Missourians  had  secured  their 
convention  to  form  a  constitution.  They  did  this  with  an 
unscrupulousness,  perhaps  due  to  the  force  of  habit  ;  cer- 
tainly it  was  needless,  since  they  knew  that  the  free-State 
men  would  take  no  part  in  it,  as  they  did  not.  The  new  Sec- 
retary of  the  Territory,  Frederick  P.  Stanton,  of  Tennessee, 
as  well  as  Governor  Walker,  when  he  arrived  out,  made 
some  vain  flourishes  in  public  speeches  and  interviews,  and 
upon  the  refusal  of  the  people  of  Lawrence  to  pay  taxes 
for  the  support  of  the  harrying  militia,  the  Governor  en- 
camped near  the  town  with  six  hundred  United  States 
dragoons,  to  overawe  them.  The  town  paid  no  attention 
to  him,  and  Providence  kindly  released  him  from  his  ridic- 
ulous plight  by  making  business  for  the  dragoons  in 
Utah. 

The  free-State  men  were  now  strong  enough  to  com- 
mand a  hearing.  Governor  Walker  assured  them  that  if 
they  would  take  part  in  the  election  of  the  Territorial  Legis- 
lature in  the  autumn,  they  should  do  it,  so  far  as  he  could 
control  it,  under  the  Organic  Act,  and  not  under  the  "  bogus 
laws,"  and  should  have  a  fair  show.  Their  friends  in  the 
States,  inclusive  of  Mr.  Colfax,  advised  them  to  act  on  this 
assurance.  They  accordingly  took  part  in  that  election, 
and  carried  it,  in  spite  of  the  disfranchisement  of  half  of 
the  counties  and  an  apportionment  openly  made  against 
them  as  villainously  as  it  could  be.  They  would  still  have 
been  beaten,  however,  if  Governor  Walker  and  Secretary 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  1 15 

Stanton — a  majority  of  the  canvassing  board — had  not 
thrown  out  three  thousand  fraudulent  votes.  The  Register 
awarded  these  officers  due  credit  for  this,  and  noted  with 
regret  the  rumblings  of  the  coming  censure  of  the  Presi- 
dent. Governor  Walker  left  the  Territory  at  once,  and 
finding  later  that  fair  play  was  no  part  of  the  President's 
policy  in  Kansas,  resigned.  For  calling  the  Legislature  to- 
gether in  extra  session  to  provide  for  a  fair  vote  on  the 
(Lecompton)  constitution,  and  to  avert  civil  war,  Secre- 
tary Stanton,  now  Acting-Governor,  was  superseded. 

The  Pro-Slavery  Convention  had  met  at  Lecompton  in 
September,  formed  a  constitution,  and  provided  for  its 
submission  to  the  people  in  December,  but  in  such  a  form 
that  it  could  not  be  rejected.  The  voter  could  vote  for  it 
with  slavery,  or  for  it  without  slavery,  but  in  no  way  could 
he  vote  against  it.  The  free-State  party  accordingly  held 
aloof  from  this  farce,  and  the  Missourian  interlopers 
adopted  their  constitution.  But  for  its  shameful  support 
by  the  President,  the  free-State  men  would  not  have  per- 
mitted this  election.  The  Legislature,  now  in  free-State 
hands,  also  submitted  the  Lecompton  Constitution  to  the 
people.  In  January,  1858,  the  people  defeated  it  by  ten 
thousand  majority. 

In  September  previous  citizens  of  Connecticut  addressed 
a  private  memorial  to  the  President,  remonstrating  against 
the  use  of  the  army  to  enforce  invalid  laws  in  Kansas. 
For  his  own  purposes,  and  not,  perhaps,  in  the  best  of  taste, 
the  President  replied  publicly,  affirming  the  doctrine  of  the 
Dred  Scott  decision — that  slavery  already  existed  in  Kan- 
sas, by  virtue  of  the  Constitution.  "If  so,"  reasoned  the 
Register,  "  it  exists  in  all  the  States  ;  for  wherever  the 
National  and  State  constitutions  conflict,  the  former  is 
paramount.  If  slavery  is  a  kind  of  'property,'  so  spe- 
cially recognized  by  the  Constitution  that  the  united  voice 
of  a  Territory  and  of  Congress,  conjoined  or  separately, 
cannot  prohibit  its  entrance  therein,  then  there  is  no  power 
in  Kansas,  as  a  State,  or  in  Indiana  or  Michigan  to  bar  its 
entrance  into  them." 

The  Thirty-fifth  Congress  convened  December  7th,  1857. 


Il6  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

On  the  first  ballot  for  Speaker,  James  L.  Orr,  of  South 
Carolina,  Administration  Democrat,  received  128  votes 
against  84  for  Galusha  A.  Grow,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  13 
scattering.  A  week  afterward  the  committees  were  an- 
nounced. Mr.  Colfax  was  assigned  to  the  Committee  on 
Indian  Affairs.  From  Seward,  Chase,  and  Hale,  the  Re- 
publican (Free-Soil)  Senators  of  1850,  the  Republican  Sen- 
ators  had  increased  to  twenty,  for  the  most  part  able  and 
true  men.  On  no  important  committee,  and  chairman  of 
none,  Mr.  Colfax  was  not  a  very  prominent  figure  in  the 
Thirty-fifth  Congress  ;  but  he  was  always  in  his  place, 
vigilant,  firm,  courteous,  mingling  in  the  debates  in  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole  and  in  the  House  on  the  appropria- 
tion bills  in  the  interest  of  economy  ;  not  partisan,  but 
watchful  of  the  increase  of  executive  patronage  ;  making 
frequent  motions  looking  to  reform,  and  suggestions  facili- 
tating the  transaction  of  business.  In  following  him 
through  the  record,  one  gets  the  impression  that,  consider- 
ing his  years,  position,  and  surroundings,  he  could  not 
have  borne  himself  better. 

He  opposed  the  issue  of  Treasury  notes  without  corre- 
sponding levies  to  meet  them.  Pay  as  you  go,  and  collect 
as  you  pay,  he  held  to  be  a  sounder  policy.  The  grandson 
of  a  Revolutionary  officer,  he  could  not  understand  why 
the  Government  tolerated  the  treasonable  antics  of  the 
Mormon  "Prophet;"  and  strongly  supported,  if  he  did 
not  carry  through,  a  resolution  offered  by  Mr.  Warren,  of 
Arkansas,  inquiring  into  the  Utah  war  and  considering 
the  propriety  of  excluding  from  the  floor  of  the  House  the 
Delegate  from  Utah.  When  Commodore  Paulding,  taking 
the  President  at  his  word,  captured  and  brought  home 
the  pirate,  William  Walker,  and  it  was  proposed  to 
modify  or  repeal  the  neutrality  laws,  so  as  to  encourage 
piracy  for  the  advantage  of  slavery,  he  contended  that  they 
ought  to  be  made  more  rigorous  and  effective.  When  it 
was  proposed  to  pension  the  survivors  of  the  War  of  1812, 
he  successfully  opposed  the  sending  of  the  proposition  to 
that  "  Tomb  of  the  Capulets,"  the  Committee  of  the 
Wholer  believing  the  national  honor  to  be  concerned  in 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  1 1/ 

smoothing  the  passage  of  these  veterans  to  the  grave  by, 
at  least,  the  small  pittance  involved.  He  urged  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  appropriation  for  the  army  in  the  Deficiency 
Bill,  saying  :  "  When  we  vote  what  we  are  asked  to  vote, 
we  are  held  up  before  the  country  as  extravagant  ;  and 
when  we  vote  to  reduce  the  estimates,  because  that  is  the 
only  way  to  infuse  economy  into  the  public  service,  we  are 
denounced  for  stopping  the  wheels  of  government."  He 
moved  a  proviso  to  the  clause  providing  for  the  expenses 
of  Utah,  "  repealing  all  laws  of  said  Territory  authorizing 
or  tolerating  polygamy,  or  the  collection  of  tithes  for  the 
benefit  or  maintenance  of  any  religious  organization." 
When  the  bill  appropriating  four  millions  for  the  collection 
of  the  revenue  was  under  consideration,  he  moved  to  re- 
duce it  to  three  millions,  demonstrating  very  clearly  and 
compactly — the  total  revenue  being  but  forty  millions — the 
extravagance  of  paying  ten  per  cent  for  its  collection, 
which,  he  pointed  out,  was  an  increase  for  this  purpose  of 
one  hundred  per  cent  since  1850.  He  offered  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Post  Office  Bill,  largely  reducing  the  appropri- 
ation, and  abolishing  the  franking  privilege  to  meet  a  part 
of  the  reduction.  Since  nothing  could  be  got  for  the  im- 
provement of  rivers  and  harbors,  he  urged  the  discon- 
tinuance of  the  improvement  of  the  grounds  south  of  the 
White  House. 

On  the  other  hand,  he  contended  for  the  increase  of  the 
appropriation  for  the  procuring  of  cuttings  and  seeds,  and 
supported  the  creation  of  a  new  bureau  in  the  Post  Office 
Department  on  account  of  the  great  increase  of  business, 
saying  that  no  one  could  be  more  jealous  of  the  increase 
of  executive  patronage  or  of  superfluous  office-holders,  or 
more  anxious  to  reduce  the  cost  of  administration,  espe- 
cially in  these  times  of  bankruptcy,  when  we  were  running 
on  shin-plasters,  but  that  he  felt  it  equally  a  duty,  when- 
ever a  clear  case  of  necessity  could  be  shown,  to  establish 
a  new  post-office  or  post  route,  a  new  bureau  for  a  de- 
partment, or  a  proper  officer  for  one  already  existing.  In 
all  of  his  work  one  is  struck  with  the  fulness  of  his  prep- 
aration, with  the  facts  and  figures  he  crowded  into  small 


118  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

space  upon  which  to  base  his  arguments,  with  the  reason- 
ableness of  his  action,  whether  he  opposed,  supported,  or 
proposed. 

His  ideal  may  doubtless  be  seen  in  the  eulogies  he  pro- 
nounced upon  Senator  James  Bell,  of  New  Hampshire,  and 
Senator  Josiah  J.  Evans,  of  South  Carolina,  who  died  dur- 
ing this  session.  Opposed  in  politics  as  he  and  the  South 
Carolinian  Senator  were,  a  genuine  friendship  existed  be- 
tween them.  Speaking  to  the  usual  resolutions  of  condo- 
lence, at  the  request  of  the  South  Carolina  delegation,  he 
said  : 

"  Seeking  rather  those  things  in  which  we  agreed  than  those  on  which 
we  were  born  to  differ,  I  learned  to  know  and  value  him.  Rarely  have  I 
known  one  so  full  of  all  those  kindly  sentiments  which  win  the  affection- 
ate regard  of  his  associates,  and  bind  them  to  him  with  almost  the  love 
of  women.  Rarely  has  it  been  my  good  fortune  to  enjoy  the  confidence 
of  one  whose  friendship  was  so  full  of  heart,  whose  heart  was  so  free 
from  guile,  whose  mind  was  so  devoid  of  bitterness  and  prejudice,  whose 
bearing  was  so  manly  and  yet  so  gentle,  and  who  in  the  very  fulness  of 
years  retained  the  cheerful  tone  and  the  genial  spirits  of  youth.  He 
seemed  to  me  like  one  of  the  Patriarchs,  cast  in  the  olden  mould  ;  like 
one  who,  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution,  would  have  been  ranked  a 
worthy  associate  of  those  noble  yet  unassuming  men  who  exhibited  their 
heroism  without  boasting,  and  were  willing  to  give  their  lives  for  their 
country  without  a  sigh." 

Of  Senator  Bell  he  said  : 

"  Always  kind  and  considerate  in  the  expression  of  his  opinions, 
always  charitable  in  his  judgments,  always  tolerant  in  his  discussions,  he 
participated  in  the  scenes  of  a  stormy  session  without  sharing  in  its 
acerbities  ;  he  moved  in  a  heated  atmosphere  without  inflaming  his  own 
judgment  ;  he  adhered  faithfully  to  his  own  opinions  without  denuncia- 
tion of  his  opponents  ;  and  while  others,  on  all  sides,  warmed  as  the 
sharp  rivalry  of  contending  sentiments  progressed,  he  remained  calm  and 
serene.  His  popularity  was  of  that  kind  which  Mansfield  said  was  alone 
valuable— which  ran  after,  instead  of  being  run  after  by  its  recipient. 
He  was  always  a  friend  to  the  poor,  their  frequent  counsellor,  their 
voluntary  and  unpaid  attorney,  their  generous  contributor.  He  had  no 
enemies,  for  he  trespassed  on  no  man's  rights  and  warred  with  no  man's 
preferences  ;  but  performing  his  own  duties  in  private  life,  and  bearing 
his  own  testimony  in  public  life,  as  he  felt  that  his  conscience  and  his 
judgment  required  him  to  do,  he  left  all  others  equally  free  to  be  guided 
by  the  same  monitors.  Indeed,  his  character  seems  to  have  been  formed 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  1 19 

in  exquisite  union  with  that  model  laid  down  by  the  Apostle  James—'  first 
pure,  then  peaceable  ;  gentle  and  easy  to  be  entreated  ;  full  of  mercy  and 
good  fruits  ;  without  partiality  and  without  hypocrisy.'  ' 

The  great  political  struggle  of  the  session  was,  on  the 
part  of  the  Administration,  to  force  Kansas  into  the  Union 
under  a  constitution  which  she  had  repudiated  ;  on  the 
part  of  the  Republicans  and  of  Senator  Douglas  and  his 
followers  to  defeat  this.  Early  in  the  session  Douglas 
declared,  in  a  long  and  earnest  speech,  that  no  appeal 
should  shake  his  purpose  to  oppose  this  scheme  to  defraud 
the  people  of  Kansas  of  their  just  power  to  ratify  or  reject 
the  constitution  under  which  they  were  to  live,  and  that 
even  if  it  divided  the  party,  he  should  not  falter.  Natur- 
ally, Republicans  sympathized  with  him  in  this  stand,  and 
for  a  time  earnest  efforts  were  made  to  bring  him  to  the 
Republican  position,  and  with  strong  hopes  of  success. 
He  had  the  largest  personal  following  of  any  man  in  the 
country,  and,  in  view  of  the  hundreds  of  prominent  Demo- 
crats who  had  become  Republicans,  the  undertaking 
seemed  less  vain  than  it  proved. 

A  week  after  Senator  Douglas's  speech,  of  which  Mr. 
Greeley  said,  "a  million  copies  should  be  distributed 
among  Democrats  by  Republicans,"  Messrs.  Colfax  and 
Burlingame  had  an  interview  with  him,  from  a  memoran- 
dum of  which,  made  by  Mr.  Colfax,  the  following  is  taken  : 

''  Douglas  declared  his  determination  to  follow  the  principles  laid 
down  in  his  recent  speech  in  the  Senate,  no  matter  where  they  led  him  ; 
was  convinced  that  Jeff  Davis  and  others  of  the  Southrons  were  really  for 
Disunion,  and  wished  an  opportunity  to  break  up  the  Union  ;  that  they 
hoped  and  worked  to  unite  the  South  ;  that  their  efforts  must  be  resisted  ; 
that  their  course  in  the  end  might  compel  the  formation  of  a  great  con- 
stitutional Union  party.  He  confessed  he  had  not  expected  to  see  such 
opposition  to  the  simple  demand  for  justice  he  had  made  for  the  people 
of  Kansas,  but  should  maintain  his  position  inflexibly,  making  all  else 
subservient  to  it,  even  if  it  drove  him  to  private  life.  ...  He  said  our 
true  policy  was  to  put  the  Disunionists  in  such  a  position  that  when  the 
breach  was  made,  as  it  would  be,  they  would  be  in  the  position  of  insur- 
gents, not  we,  as  they  desired  should  be  the  case  ;  so  that,  they  being  the 
rebels,  the  army  and  the  power  of  the  nation  would  be  against  them. 
Colfax  said  he  confessed  to  having  had  the  strongest  prejudice  against 
Douglas,  politically,  and  he  had  had  no  confidence  that  Douglas  would 


120  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

take  his  present  position  ;  but  that  he,  like  Douglas,  made  this  the  para- 
mount question,  dwarfing  all  other  issues  ;'  that  Douglas  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  place  himself  in  the  most  commanding  position  of  any  statesman 
in  the  nation  ;  that  he  could  be  the  '  Silas  Wright '  of  his  party,  and 
could  conquer  the  prejudices  of  his  enemies.  But  he  believed  that 
Douglas  would  be  forced  out  of  his  party  if  he  persisted  in  his  present 
course.  He  [Colfax]  made  no  committals  respecting  the  Presidency  or 
future  affiliations,  except  that  he  was  with  those  who  were  for  justice 
to  the  people  of  Kansas  ;  and  that,  though  he  was  no  believer  in  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  he  was  for  compelling  the  party 
which  passed  the  Nebraska  Bill  to  stand  up  to  its  principles  of  popular 
sovereignty,  when  they  inured,  as  now,  if  fairly  carried  out,  for 
freedom." 

Other  Republican  leaders — Messrs.  Banks,  Grow,  Henry 
Winter  Davis,  Henry  Wilson — were  invited  to  join  in  these 
friendly  approaches  to  Douglas,  and  they  did  so  ;  and  Col- 
fax  at  once  took  Greeley  and  the  editors  of  the  Chicago 
Press  6°  Tribune,  Mr.  Joseph  Medill  and  Dr.  Ray,  into  his 
confidence.  His  letters  on  the  subject  were  probably  de- 
stroyed as  soon  as  read,  because  of  their  confidential 
nature  ;  but  many  of  their  letters  to  him  are  extant,  and 
they  throw  a  vivid  light  on  some  aspects  of  those  times. 
Mr.  Medill  was  a  Lincoln  man,  but  he  admitted  the  advan- 
tage of  bringing  Douglas,  if  possible,  to  the  Republican 
position,  or  even  to  real  "  squatter  sovereignty."  In  that 
case  he  saw  not  how  the  Northern  people  could  be  pre- 
vented from  accepting  him  as  their  leader.  Dr.  Ray  had 
no  confidence  in  Douglas.  "  I  think  I  see  his  tracks  all 
over  our  State  ;  they  point  only  in  one  direction  ;  not  a 
single  toe  is  turned  toward  the  Republican  camp.  Watch 
him,  use  him,  but  do  not  trust  him — not  an  inch."  Mr. 
Greeley' s  idea  was  to  sustain  him  in  the  Democratic  Party 
rather  than  to  detach  him  from  it ;  and  after  he  had  elected 
him  Senator  over  Lincoln  (in  1858),  and  was  heartily  an- 
athematized for  it  by  the  Illinois  Republicans,  he  was  still 
of  the  same  opinion — that  it  was  due  to  Douglas,  and  was 
not  only  right,  but  good  policy.  He  writes  Colfax, 
May  25th  : 

"  Of  course  Douglas  goes  back:  I  have  for  some  time  seen  that — the 
question  is  as  to  his  staying  back.  First,  will  he  ?  Second,  can  he  ?  He 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  121 

has  got  to  take  a  far-back  seat  in  the  kingdom  if  he  does.  But  no  matter 
what  he  does.  Let  us  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  we  have 
treated  him  and  his  friends  justly,  fairly,  honorably.  There  will  be  more 
years  after  1858." 

Mr.  Colfax  writes  Mr.  Matthews  in  January,  1858  : 

"  It  looks  as  though  the  Democratic  Party  was  going  to  be  hopelessly 
divided  and  blown  to  atoms.  I  shall  be  surprised  if  Douglas  is  not  at 
open  and  bitter  war  with  the  Administration  before  the  session  is  over. 
The  split  may  be  healed,  but  I  don't  see  how,  for  the  Administration  has 
already  commenced  war  on  him,  and  he  has  a  perfect  appetite  for  fighting 
those  who  fight  him." 

For  a  time  Douglas  must  have  expected  a  permanent 
rupture  between  himself  and  the  Administration,  although 
he  always  claimed  that  a  Democrat  could  oppose  the  Le- 
compton  outrage  without  in  the  least  impairing  his  stand- 
ing in  the  Democratic  Party. 

February  2ist  Colfax  writes  his  mother  and  Mr.  Mat- 
thews : 

"  I  wrote  you  once  before  about  Douglas  ;  and  I  do  not  wonder  that 
it  surprised  you  that  we  had  confidential  interviews  together,  considering 
our  former  bitter  antagonism.  He  is  progressing  very  rapidly  in  the 
right  direction,  and  I  think  by  the  fall,  if  he  goes  on  as  well  hereafter  as 
he  has  up  to  this  time,  will  do  to  be  baptized.  We  have  had  a  number 
of  talks  together,  and  the  other  day,  while  he  was  drawing  up  his  report, 
he  sent  word  to  Grow  and  me  that  he  wanted  to  have  a  private  talk  with 
us  that  evening  after  nine  P.M.,  when  we  would  not  be  disturbed  by  callers. 
We  were  there  two  hours  and  a  half,  and  he  would  scarcely  let  us  go, 
we  had  so  much  to  talk  about.  We  talked  over  the  whole  future  that  lies 
before  us  politically,  and  he  did  not  attempt  to  deny  that  he  did  not  expect 
to  act  with  his  old  party  in  that  future,  but  with  us.  It  will  surprise  you 
still  more  when  I  tell  you  that  he  is  for  my  re-election  !  He  had  told 
General  Wilson  so  previously,  but  he  told  me  directly,  and  said  he  had 
sent  word  out  to  the  district  that  his  friends  must  not  attempt  to  nomi- 
nate an  anti-Lecompton  Democrat  for  Congress,  like  Eddy  or  Walker,  but 
to  let  Fitch  put  a  Lecompton  man  on  the  track,  and  then  bury  him  under 
an  unparalleled  majority.  This  was  certainly  liberal,  considering  that  he 
asks  no  pledges  that  he  shall  be  re-elected  or  supported  in  Illinois.  He 
says  if  the  people  don't  want  him,  or  if  his  name  proves  a  barrier  to  the 
union  of  the  anti-Lecomptonites,  he  is  willing  to  retire  to  private  life  ; 
but  he  wants  to  make  this  fight  against  the  Lecompton  villainy  and  the 
men  who  indorse  it  one  that  shall  live  in  history.  I  only  give  these 
things  to  you  to  show  the  strange  evolutions  of  politics,  and  what  strange 


122  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

bedfellows   its  whirligigs  bring   together.      You   must   not,   of  course, 
repeat  them  to  any  one,  nor  let  any  of  the  children  do  it." 

It  may  seem  strange  that  Douglas  did  not  become  a 
Republican  at  this  juncture  ;  but,  in  truth,  outside  of  the 
honest  submission  of  the  Lecompton  Constitution  to  a  vote 
of  the  people  of  Kansas,  Douglas  and  the  President  stood 
on  the  same  platform.  The  Republicans  held  that  Con- 
gress could  and  should  exclude  slavery  from  the  Terri- 
tories. Douglas,  equally  with  Buchanan,  denied  both  the 
power  and  the  duty.  The  Republicans  held  that  the  peo- 
ple of  a  Territory,  through  Legislative  enactment,  could 
exclude  slavery  from  that  Territory.1  Douglas,  by  indors- 
ing the  political  doctrine  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
equally  with  Buchanan,  denied  this  ;  denied  to  the  people 
of  a  Territory  the  right  or  power  to  determine  whether 
their  civilization  should  rest  on  free  or  slave  labor  ;  and 
repudiated  the  axiom — old  as  the  Government — that  free- 
dom is  national,  slavery  sectional.  The  Republicans  held 
that  the  Constitution  regarded  slaves  as  persons.  The 
Supreme  Bench,  Douglas,  and  Buchanan  held  slaves  to  be 
chattels,  property,  not  persons  at  all,  in  any  sense  of  the 
word,  although  their  masters  were  allowed  representation 
for  them.  The  Republicans  held  that  slavery  was  against 
natural  law,  against  the  common  law,  could  exist  only 
by  virtue  of  statute  law.  Douglas,  equally  with  Buchanan, 
held  that  "  slaves  being  property,  when  carried  into  a 
Territory  the  property  quality  still  stuck  to  them,  like  the 
shirt  of  Nessus — was  kept  on  them  by  the  Constitution — 
an  awful  proposition,  shocking  to  the  moral  sense  of  man- 
kind." While  they  agreed  on  these  fundamental  prin- 
ciples, the  difference  between  Douglas  and  the  President, 
respecting  the  admission  of  Kansas  under  the  Lecompton 
Constitution,  amounted  to  nothing. 

As  was  therefore  to  be  expected,  even  before  the  Le- 
compton Constitution  had  been  juggled  aside,  a  conven- 
tion was  held  in  Illinois  by  the  friends  of  Douglas,  which 

1.  They  denied  the  right,  however,  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  or  of  any  other  Territory 
north  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line,  to  adopt  slavery,  because  it  was  soil  perpetually 
dedicated  to  freedom. 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  123 

claimed  to  represent  the  regular  "  National  Democracy," 
denounced  all  others  as  "  Danites,"  or  "  Black  Republi- 
cans," and  nominated  Douglas  for  Senator  on  a  platform 
repelling  to  Republicans.  Upon  this  he  began  to  "  craw- 
fish" at  Washington.  The  Illinois  Republicans  met  in 
June,  and  nominated  Abraham  Lincoln  for  Senator.  Two 
weeks  later  Douglas  returned  home,  and  opened  the  can- 
vass with  a  pro-slavery  speech,  unqualifiedly  approving  the 
infamous  political  doctrine  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 
With  Greeley's  assistance,  Douglas  was  barely  re-elected 
Senator,  after  the  most  exciting  canvass  ever  witnessed  in 
the  State. 

In  November  following,  in  an  interview  with  Dr.  Ray, 
he  admitted  that  his  late  contest  with  the  Republicans 
was  a  blunder,  but  asserted  that  it  was  their  fault.  They 
had  endeavored  to  make  a  mere  tool  of  him,  he  said.  Mr. 
Medill  writes  Colfax  : 

"  For  the  future,  he  declared  that  he  had  no  truce  or  terms  to  offer  the 
Administration  ;  that  he  would  fight  a  slave  code  [for  the  Territories]  in 
any  shape  it  might  be  presented  ;  that  he  would  vote  to  repeal  the  '  Eng- 
lish Act,'  for  the  admission  of  Kansas  regardless  of  population,  for  an 
increase  of  the  tariff,  for  pure  squatter  sovereignty,  for  the  ejection  of 
Fitch  and  Bright,  '  bogus  Senators  '  from  Indiana,  whom  he  damned 
most  bitterly.  He  said  he  was  not  a  candidate  before  the  Charleston 
Convention,  did  not  expect  to  be,  did  not  intend  to  fit  himself  to  be,  and 
that  he  would  pursue  the  same  course  he  had  done  toward  the  National 
Democracy.  He  said  that  Wise  wrote  the  slave  code  article  in  the  Rich- 
mond Enquirer  to  head  him  [Douglas]  off  with  the  South,  and  to  reinstate 
himself  [Wise]  with  the  oligarchy,  but  he  didn't  care  ;  that  he  was  still  a 
young  man,  only  forty-five  years  old,  and  could  wait  until  the  signs  came 
right  ;  that  his  friends  who  were  throwing  up  their  caps  for  him  as  the 
next  President  were  a  set  of  jackasses  ;  that  there  were  a  hundred  hidden 
rocks  in  his  stream  that  they  had  not  the  sagacity  to  see  ;  that  as  soon  as 
he  set  foot  in  Washington  traps  would  be  set  for  him  by  both  parties  ; 
test  questions  would  be  sprung  that  would  either  forever  sever  him  from 
the  Southern  Democracy  or  cut  him  off  from  the  sympathy  and  support 
of  the  anti-Lecompton  [anti-slavery  was  the  idea]  men  of  the  North.  But 
he  was  going  straight  ahead,  and  consequences  and  gin-traps  might  take 
care  of  themselves  ;  that  he  was  secure  in  his  seat  until  1864,  and  he  was 
not  going  to  compromise  himself  with  the  people  of  Illinois  or  stultify 
his  past  course  for  the  purpose  of  conciliating  the  Fire-eaters,  whom  he 
described  as  narrow  and  vindictive  in  their  opinions. 


124  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

"  Such  was  the  general  scope  of  the  conversation.  You  can  draw 
your  own  conclusions  from  it.  He  expressed  himself  much  gratified  with 
the  interview,  and  invited  another  on  his  return  from  New  Orleans.  He 
thanked  us  for  preserving  inviolate  what  had  passed  between  him  and  yoti 
that  came  to  our  knowledge,  and  admitted  his  weighty  obligations  to  you 
for  preserving  the  seal  of  secrecy  on  what  had  passed  between  you.  I 
think  that  you  can  commence  with  him  pretty  nearly  where  you  left  off. 
He  will  talk  more  freely  than  ever.  My  private  opinion  is  that  he  will 
never  be  reinstated  in  the  Democratic  Church,  and  that  he  will  gradually 
drift  toward  our  side,  and  finally  be  compelled  to  act  with  us  in  1860." 

Three  months  afterward  Medill  writes  again,  to  wit  : 
"  What  a  beautiful  convert  Douglas  has  turned  out  to  be  ! 
sneaking  and  crawling  into  the  Buchanan  caucuses  after 
he  had  been  read  out,  kicked  out,  -snubbed,  and  spit  upon 
by  the  Buck  Africans  !" 

What  else  was  there  left  for  Douglas  to  do  ?  The  time 
had  long  since  passed,  if  such  time  had  ever  been,  when  he 
could  have  brought  to  the  Republicans  a  following  which 
would  have  forced  an  alliance.  But  by  holding  with  his 
party,  he  perhaps  served  the  ends  of  freedom  better  than 
he  could  have  done  by  leaving  his  party.  He  seems,  in- 
deed, to  have  been  the  instrument  of  Destiny  in  bringing 
on  the  revolution  ;  first,  by  proposing  and  carrying  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  ;  secondly,  by  defeat- 
ing Lecompton,  and  thus  preventing  the  precipitation  of 
civil  war  by  the  Northwest  in  behalf  of  Kansas,1  in  which 
case  the  slave  power  would  have  had  the  prestige  of  legiti- 
macy, and  the  partisans  of  freedom  the  onus  of  treason 

1.  The  feeling  is  indicated  by  the  following  :  Dr.  Ray  writes  Colfax,  January  5th, 
1858  :  "  You  will  see  that  the  internal  affairs  of  Kansas  are  threatening.  Is  there  no  way 
to  disband  the  army  of  the  United  States — to  tie  up  the  strings  of  the  public  purse — to 
raise  hell  generally  ?  The  country  will  justify  the  most  radical  measures."  And  Medill 
writes,  December  22d,  1857  :  "  Since  writing  the  foregoing  the  late  news  from  Kansas  has 
come  to  hand.  Things  look  bloody  and  belligerent  up  there.  I  hope  claret  may  be 
drawn.  The  thing  will  never  be  well  settled  until  the  free-State  men  thoroughly  thresh 
the  Border  Ruffians,  troops  and  all.  Public  opinion  is  such  in  this  State  that  if  the  neces- 
sity comes,  the  Governor  can  call  the  Legislature  together,  and  it  will  vote  men  and 
money  to  support  the  people  of  Kansas  in  their  right  of  self-government.  Nineteen  men 
out  of  every  twenty  in  Illinois  are  in  favor  of  that  doctrine.  Iowa  and  Wisconsin  are  all 
right  and  ripe ,  too,  for  a  pretty  muss.  Our  friends  in  Missouri  are  nearly  a  match  for  the 
Fire-eaters  there— perhaps  more  than  a  match.  I  say,  let  the  thing  be  fought  out,  and 
now  is  as  good  a  time  as  any.  But  if  Douglas  falters  in  this  crisis,  he  is  a  dead  man. 
Now  is  his  time  to  make  a  ten-strike,  and  redeem  the  great  blunder  he  made  three  years 
ago.  Tell  him,  and  rub  in  the  idea.1' 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  125 

and  rebellion  ;  thirdly,  by  controlling,  through  his  friends, 
the  Charleston  Convention,  forcing  the  slave  interest  to 
bolt,  and  allowing  Lincoln  to  be  run  in  as  a  minority  Presi- 
dent. His  was  the  Trojan  horse,  his  the  acts  that  forced 
the  issue,  and  he  redeemed  all  his  errors  by  ringing  true 
when  the  crisis  finally  came. 

Early  in  February  (1858)  President  Buchanan  trans- 
mitted a  special  message  to  Congress,  urging  the  admis- 
sion of  Kansas  under  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  a  copy 
of  which  accompanied  the  message.  In  the  House  a  great 
parliamentary  struggle  ended  in  its  reference  to  a  special 
committee  of  fifteen,  with  instructions  to  investigate  the 
whole  subject.  Mr.  Speaker  Orr  appointed  a  majority  of 
Lecompton  men  on  this  committee,  and  so  the  committee 
refused  to  investigate  it.1  Thereupon  the  House  would 
not  allow  the  committee  to  report  at  all,  and  Alexander  H. 
Stephens,  chairman  of  the  committee,  published  their  re- 
port. Debate  on  the  subject  began  March  iQth,  the  House 
being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  Deficiency  Bill. 
Three  gentlemen  had  spoken  on  each  side,  when,  on  March 
2oth,  Colfax  got  the  floor,  and  opened  a  set  speech,  as 
follows  : 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  when  the  gentleman  from  Mississippi 
[Mr.  Barksdale]  was  upon  the  floor  a  little  while  ago,  he 
wished  to  know  whether  if  Kansas  came  here  with  a  consti- 
tution, adopted  by  her  people,  recognizing  slavery,  I  would 
vote  for  her  admission  under  that  constitution.  I  tell  him 
now,  emphatically,  that  I  would  not.  When  the  Missouri 
Compromise — that  time-honored  compact — was  repealed,  I 
declared  then,  and  I  maintain  it  now,  that  by  no  vote  of 
mine  should  that  repeal  ever  be  carried  out  to  what  I  feared 
was  intended  to  be  the  result  ;  and  therefore  I  would  re- 
fuse to  admit  Kansas  as  a  slave  State  in  any  contingency." 

He  cited  the  weighty  denunciation  by  great  Democrats 
of  the  disregard  of  the  expressed  will  of  the  people  in  the 
New  Jersey  election  cases  of  1839,  and  compared  their  stand 

1.  Mr.  Greeley  writes  Colfax  :  "  Orr  has  acted  like  a  fool  in  making  a  Lecompton 
committee.  I  shall  yell  at  him  like  an  ox  in  a  cornfield.  But  I  guess  it  will  prove  all  for 
the  test.  It  will  harden  the  Douglasites." 


126  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

then  with  the  contempt  of  the  will  of  the  people  of  Kansas, 
exhibited  by  leading  Democrats  now.  He  gave  a  con- 
densed history  of  the  fraudulent  elections  in  Kansas  which 
had  culminated  in  this  infamous  Lecompton  Constitution 
and  the  more  infamous  attempt  to  impose  it  on  a  people 
who  detested  it.  He  demonstrated  by  incontrovertible 
evidence  that  the  President's  Message  belied  the  history  of 
the  case,  as  the  President  had  falsified  his  word  of  a  year 
ago,  given  through  Governor  Walker,  that  the  Kansas 
people  should  be  protected  from  fraud  or  violence  in  voting 
on  this  constitution.  He  exposed  the  monstrous  features 
of  the  instrument  itself,  aside  from  its  pro-slavery  charac- 
ter, and  the  methods  of  its  creation  and  attempted  impo- 
sition upon  Kansas.  He  reduced  to  an  absurdity  the  argu- 
ments of  the  President  and  his  committees  and  champions, 
by  citing  the  case  of  polygamous  Utah,  which  was  at  that 
time  applying  the  very  principles  the  President  and  his 
friends  were  promulgating,  by  engaging  in  actual  rebel- 
lion. "  Utah,"  said  he,  "  had  merely,  in  the  language  of 
the  gentleman  from  Mississippi  [Mr.  Lamar],  interposed 
between  your  laws  and  her  people  the  broad  and  radiant 
shield  of  State  sovereignty,  and  attempted  to  back  up  her 
position  and  pretensions  by  force  of  arms."  The  Presi- 
dent professed  to  be  tired  of  the  troubles  in  Kansas,  and 
wanted  peace.  "  How  easy  the  way  to  peace,  with  Justice 
for  guide  !  Release  Kansas  from  the  grasp  of  the  de- 
spoiler,  and  let  her  go  free  !  In  the  language  of  an  elo- 
quent orator  of  my  own  State,  I  say  :  '  When  she  comes  to 
us,  let  it  be  as  a  willing  bride,  and  not  as  a  fettered,  man- 
acled slave.'  " 

The  speech  was  spoken  of  by  the  press  and  the  Wash- 
ington letter-writers  as  the  best  delivered  in  the  House 
during  the  session.  Mr.  Greeley  said  it  contained  more 
new  points  than  any  yet  made  in  the  discussion.1  Even 

I.  Mr.  Colfax  writes  his  mother,  March  17th  :  "  Besides  everything  else,  I  have  been 
franking  about  two  thousand  speeches  for  St.  Joseph  County,  having  hired  a  clerk  to 
direct  them,  and  have  finished  the  preparation  of  a  speech  which  I  will  deliver  in  a  week 
or  so  if  I  can  get  the  floor,  and  which,  as  I  made  a  hit  two  years  ago,  I  have  had  to  pre- 
pare with  some  labor  and  care,  so  as  not  to  entirely  disappoint  friends,  who  would  expect 
to  find  some  new  points  in  it— a  very  hard  job  to  accomplish." 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  12? 

the  opposition  paper  in  his  own  town  was  moved  to  thank 
him  for  his  services  against  the  Lecompton  iniquity. 

On  the  4th  of  March  he  addressed  a  letter  to  the  In- 
diana State  Convention,  pointing  out  the  danger  of  the 
admission  of  Kansas,  and  urging  popular  demonstrations 
against  it.  He  deprecated  the  tendency  of  the  Northern 
people,  even  in  great  crises  like  the  present,  to  array  them- 
selves in  factions,  seeking  rather  to  define  more  sharply 
the  points  on  which  they  disagreed  than  to  lock  shields  in 
defence  of  the  imperilled  rights  of  free  men.  He  insisted 
that  all  should  take  the  field  together,  with  a  platform 
higher  than  party,  "  resolved  to  consign  to  political  ob- 
livion every  man  who  aids  or  abets  this  gigantic  crime. 
Such  a  stand  would  be  powerfully  felt  in  the  struggle 
here  in  Washington."  Nothing  of  the  mere  partisan  in 
this  letter,  there  is  much  of  the  statesman  of  high  aims 
and  character,  as  there  is  in  his  comments  on  the  attitude 
of  many  Republicans  toward  Douglas.  The  duty  nearest 
us,  said  he,  is  to  crush  out  the  Lecompton  swindle. 
Though  disapproving  the  previous  course  of  Douglas,  he 
welcomed  his  powerful  aid  in  the  pending  crisis.  It  was 
not  material  whose  plan  should  be  adopted  for  the  settle- 
ment of  details.  "  Let  us  join  together  heartily  to  prevent 
this  great  crime,  if  possible  ;  it  will  be  easy  enough  to 
agree  afterward  upon  some  fair  way  to  give  Kansas  her 
free  will." 

The  struggle  resulted  in  sending  the  constitution  back 
to  the  people  of  Kansas  indirectly,  in  the  guise  of  an  or- 
dinance granting  lands,  an  expedient  due  to  the  political 
genius  of  Mr.  W.  H.  English,  of  Indiana.1  If  they  adopted 
this  ordinance,  Kansas  was  to  be  declared  a  State  of  the 
Union  by  proclamation  of  the  President  ;  if  not,  Kansas 
was  to  remain  a  Territory  until  she  should  have  population 
enough  to  entitle  her  to  a  Representative  in  Congress. 
Colfax  regarded  this  as  a  continuation  of  the  same  atro- 

1.  Mr.  Greeley  writes  Colfax,  April  21st :  "  Don't  be  frightened  at  the  looks  of  Eng- 
lish's bill.  It  is  a  vicious  blunderbuss,  and  will  kick  over  those  who  stand  at  the  breech. 
Of  course  the  earnest  anti-Lecomptonites  must  all  oppose  it,  but  if  it  is  passed,  I  shall  not 
shed  a  tear.  The  Kansans  will  dispose  of  it,  and  then  what  is  there  in  the  way  of  the 
Leavenworth  Constitution  ?  Be  steady  at  Washington,  and  all's  well." 


128  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

cious  policy,  and  more  infamous  than  anything  yet,  because 
of  its  indirection,  its  discrimination  against  freedom,  and 
its  proffer  of  a  vast  gift  of  lands  as  a  bribe  for  the  accept- 
ance of  slavery.  It  proceeded  on  the  theory  that  the  Kan- 
sas people  were  idiots.  But  it  was  the  best  that  could  be 
done,  perhaps,  and  it  turned  out  well  enough. 

Before  Congress  adjourned  it  was  understood  that  the 
sitting  Member  from  the  Ninth  District  would  be  nomi- 
nated for  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress.  "  We  stated  some 
weeks  ago,"  said  the  Rensselaer  Gazette,  "  that  we  saw  no 
use  in  a  convention,  as  Mr.  Colfax  has  no  opposition  ; 
but,  since  reading  his  speech  on  Kansas,  we  desire  a  con- 
vention, to  show  our  honored  Representative  how  deeply 
fixed  he  is  in  the  affections  of  his  constituents. "  On  his 
return  home  in  June  he  was  received  with  addresses  and 
other  demonstrations  of  welcome  by  the  people  of  South 
Bend.  The  Register  of  July  8th  gives  an  account  of  the 
celebration  of  Independence  Day,  at  which  he  was  the 
orator,  with  ten  thousand  in  attendance — a  large  gather- 
ing for  1858.  It  measured  the  growth  of  the  country  and 
of  the  speaker  since  the  celebration  at  Carlisle  Hill  in 
1839,  which  boasted  an  attendance  of  seven  hundred,  and 
which  the  future  Congressman  reported  for  the  county 
paper  as  "  Casparus,"  the  given  name  of  his  great-great- 
grandfather. The  same  issue  of  the  Register  contains  the 
proceedings  of  the  Republican  Convention  of  the  Ninth 
District,  which  renominated  him  for  Congress  by  accla- 
mation, "  amid  thunders  of  applause,"  adopted  resolutions 
approving  his  course  in  Congress,  denouncing  the  extrav- 
agance of  the  Administration  and  its  Lecompton  policy, 
and  listened  to  a  speech  from  the  candidate.  Urging  his 
renomination,  in  common  with  many  other  journals,  the 
New  York  Tribune  said  : 

"  No  man  in  either  House  has,  during  the  last  three  sessions,  been  a 
more  indefatigable  or  a  more  effective  worker  than  he  ;  no  man  whom 
Indiana  has  sent  to  the  House  these  ten  years  has  achieved  a  higher  dis- 
tinction or  a  more  general  esteem.  Several  of  his  speeches  have  been 
among  the  very  best  made  in  the  House  since  he  took  a  seat  on  its  floor, 
and  have  been  most  serviceable  throughout  the  Union." 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  1 29 

Senator  Douglas  returned  home  about  this  time.  Re- 
ceived with  unprecedented  demonstrations  of  welcome  at 
Chicago,  in  a  responsive  speech  he  denounced  Lecompton 
as  a  fraud  and  the  English  Act  for  discriminating  between 
free  and  slave  constitutions  ,  approved  the  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision ;  said  that  he  cared  not  whether  slavery  was  voted 
down  or  up  in  Kansas,  and  that  he  would  canvass  the 
State  as  a  Democrat,  in  opposition  to  the  principles  of  the 
Republicans.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  spoken  at  the  State  Con- 
vention of  the  Republicans,  saying  :  "  Either  the  oppo- 
nents of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and 
place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that 
it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates 
will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all 
the  States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South." 

To  this  conclusion  five  years  of  agitation  to  put  down 
slavery  agitation  had  brought  Mr.  Lincoln  and  all  thought- 
ful Republicans.  The  logic  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
was  that  slavery  existed,  by  virtue  of  the  Constitution, 
wherever  that  instrument  was  recognized  as  paramount, 
whether  Territory  or  State.  The  South  had  the  advan- 
tage, because  its  direct  pecuniary,  political,  and  social 
interest  in  the  question  formed  a  bond  of  union.  The 
North  was  divided  and  subdivided.  The  probabilities 
were,  at  that  time,  that  this  doctrine  would  become  that 
of  the  majority,  and  ultimately,  and  at  no  distant  day,  be 
realized  in  fact  as  well  as  recognized  in  law.  Let  us  not 
forget  what  freedom  owes  to  the  men  who  set  themselves 
to  stem  the  tide  of  this  desperate  tendency,  with  all  the  dis- 
interestedness and  firmness  of  apostles  and  martyrs.  On 
the  prairies  of  Illinois,  in  1858,  the  lists  were  set,  and  the 
two  great  champions  met.  The  stake  was  the  future  of 
mankind,  the  contest  an  intellectual  duel,  rarely  if  ever 
equalled.  But  other  champions  met  in  similar  lists  that 
year,  as  they  had  in  previous  years,  and  rendered  equally 
as  courageous  and  zealous  if  less  conspicuous  service. 

Of  these  was  the  Representative  of  the  Ninth  Congres- 
sional District  of  Indiana.  For  this  race  the  Democrats 
pitted  against  him  Colonel  John  C.  Walker,  of  the  La 


130  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

Porte  Times  ^  born  and  raised  in  La  Porte  ;  a  Whig  who,  in 
the  break-up  of  parties,  found  himself  a  Democrat,  and  was 
looked  upon  by  his  friends  as  the  very  flower  of  Indiana 
Democracy.  His  platform  approved  of  the  Cincinnati 
platform  and  the  Administration  of  President  Buchanan. 
Douglas  had  failed  to  obtain  the  nomination  of  a  Lecomp- 
ton  Democrat.  The  people  of  Kansas,  early  in  August, 
rejected  the  English  proposition,  and  with  it  the  Lecomp- 
ton  Constitution.  This  "  bone  of  contention"  within  the 
party  removed,  there  was  a  sort  of  Democratic  revival  ; 
several  new  Democratic  papers  were  started  in  the  district, 
and  it  was  determined  to  remand  Mr.  Colfax  to  private 
life.  Speaking  of  it  in  after  years,  Colfax  said  that 
".Walker  succeeded  in  infusing  both  hope  and  zeal  into 
the  hearts  of  his  political  followers  ;  and  he  failed  to  win 
from  a  lack  of  votes,  not  from  lack  of  work."  The  can- 
didates could  not  agree  on  arrangements  for  a  joint  can- 
vass, and  each  took  his  own  way.1  Beginning  on  the  5th 
of  August,  in  less  than  sixty  working  days  Colfax  trav- 
elled twenty-four  hundred  and  thirty-four  miles,  and  made 
one  hundred  and  one  speeches,  of  probably  three  hours 
each— three  hundred  hours  of  continuous  speaking  within 
ten  weeks — a  task  that  Hercules  would  have  declined.  To 
the  speaker  something  was  involved  of  greater  moment 
than  the  mere  glory  of  going  to  Congress. 

Hon.  Jasper  Packard,  who  represented  the  district  in 
three  Congresses  after  Colfax  was  elected  Vice- President, 
writes  the  author  :  "  It  was  in  1858  that  I  first  heard 
Mr.  Colfax  speak,  and  neither  before  nor  since  have  I  ever 
been  so  completely  enchained  by  a  speaker."  Judge  Stan- 
field,  whose  obsequies  were  celebrated  as  these  lines  were 
written,  said  to  the  author  : 

1.  July  29th  he  writes  his  mother  :  "  The  Register  will  tell  you  all  about  the  failure 
of  the  joint  canvass.  Walker  was  determined  not  to  go  into  it,  and  his  offer  was  a  blind, 
knowing  that  I  would  not  agree  to  seal  my  mouth  while  his  hounds  were  baying  on  my 
track,  as  they  will  be  this  fall.  Instead  of  thirteen  speeches,  as  he  proposes,  I  expect  to 
make  eighty  or  one  hundred,  if  I  have  health  and  strength.  I  fear  my  throat ;  but  if  it 
stands,  I  will  canvass  the  district  twice  over — once  after  my  def  amers — and  speak  twice  a 
day,  too.  They  are  determined  to  beat  me  at  all  hazards,  and  I  suppose  will  have  two 
thousand  railroad  hands  and  swamp-land  ditchers  in  the  district.  But  they  will  not  have 
my  scalp,  after  all,  if  I  only  have  my  health.1' 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  131 

"  He  just  carried  the  people  away.  There  was  not  a  more  pleasing 
or  more  powerful  speaker  in  the  West.  He  had  no  loads  to  carry,  noth- 
ing to  explain,  no  drawbacks.  The  women  and  children  loved  him.  He 
was  very  popular  before  the  people,  always.  His  temper  could  not  be 
ruffled.  He  seized  the  telling  things  in  the  situation  by  instinct,  and  no 
one  could  present  them  more  clearly,  or  more  of  them  in  the  same  time. 
Often  he  was  eloquent,  especially  in  his  earlier  years.  We  used  to  go 
canvassing  together  when  he  was  a  mere  boy.  At  first  he  told  me  he  had 
a  speech  prepared  and  committed  that  would  take  four  hours  to  deliver. 
It  was  divided  into  sections,  and  he  used  them  as  occasion  served  or 
required.  He  never  failed  before  an  audience,  and  never  seemed  to 
dread  the  ordeal,  as  most  of  us  do." 

None  of  his  speeches  in  this  canvass  were  printed.  One 
of  them  would  have  filled  two  issues  of  his  paper,  and  there 
was  no  great  city  in  his  district,  with  a  metropolitan  press, 
to  catch  and  transmit  them  to  future  times.  The  Register 
said  :  "  Mr.  Colfax  spoke  three  hours  and  ten  minutes. 
His  speech  was  an  able  and  eloquent  vindication  of  Repub- 
lican principles  and  of  his  course  in  Congress  ;  a  convinc- 
ing exposure  of  the  wrongs  and  extravagance  of  the  Ad- 
ministration ;  and  a  triumphant  refutation  of  the  miserable 
slanders  which  have  been  heaped  upon  him  by  some  of  his 
political  enemies." 

Occasionally  he  came  in  contact  with  his  adversaries.  At 
one  place  Colonel  May,  a  supporter  of  Walker,  professed 
to  read  something  from  Colfax's  paper,  and  then  made  it 
the  theme  of  reprobation.  Mr.  Colfax  had  given  Colonel 
May  five  minutes  at  his  meeting  in  the  morning,  and  when 
the  Colonel  finished,  he  asked  and  was  granted  the  return 
of  the  favor,  and  the  paper.  Holding  it  up,  he  showed 
the  audience  that  May  had  cut  out  a  part  of  the  article. 
Drawing  a  Register  from  his  pocket,  he  read  the  whole 
article,  and  won  nine  rousing  cheers  from  Colonel  May's 
crowd,  as  he  stepped  down  at  the  end  of  his  five  minutes. 
The  fight  against  him  was  mainly  personal,  but  it  was  idle. 
Colonel  Walker's  paper,  the  La  Porte  Times,  was  especially 
bitter,  misrepresenting  and  slandering  him  as  a  man  and 
a  Representative.  He  and  Walker  met  at  last  before 
thousands  of  people  in  South  Bend.  In  his  opening  Walker 
denied  that  his  paper  had  traduced  his  opponent.  Follow- 


132  SCHUYLER   COLFAX.          , 

ing,  Colfax  first  recited  Walker's  denial,  then  drew  a  lot  of 
the  papers  from  his  pocket,  and  tossing  them  one  by  one 
among  the  crowd,  told  them  to  read  for  themselves. 
Walker  sprang  up,  and  approached  him  as  if  to  use  per- 
sonal violence  ;  but  he  was  restrained,  and,  Colfax  paying 
no  attention  to  him,  he  sat  down  again.1 

The  Indiana  State  Journal  pronounced  this  "the  hard- 
est contest  in  the  whole  State,"  adding  : 

"And  there,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the  Republican  ticket 
gained  handsomely,  even  over  the  triumphant  vote  of  1854.  It  is  the 
only  district  in  which  the  State  ticket  gains  over  that  contest,  although 
both  wings  of  the  Democracy  were  united  there.  The  whole  State  was 
filled  with  predictions  by  our  opponents  that  the  Ninth  District  would 
certainly  be  redeemed  ;  but  while  they  were  boasting  Colfax  was  speak- 
ing every  day  except  Sundays  from  July  to  October.  The  result  is  seen 
in  the  brilliant  victory,  despite  hundreds  of  imported  voters  and  the  dozen 
Democrats  constantly  speaking  throughout  the  district." 

He  ran  ahead  of  the  State  ticket  in  every  county,  win- 
ning by  1931  majority  in  a  total  poll  of  27,151. 

Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne  writes  him,  October  i5th  : 

"  I  congratulate  you  on  being  through  the  woods.  Though  the  ruf- 
fians were  making  a  desperate  dash  at  you,  I  was  satisfied  you  would 
come  in.  But  your  overwhelming  majority  surprises  and  gratifies  me. 
You  have  achieved  not  only  a  political  but  a  proud  personal  triumph. 
I  think  they  will  permit  you  to  pass  hereafter." 

After  his  own  election,  at  the  request  of  the  Illinois 
Republican  Committee,  he  made  a  dozen  speeches  in  Illi- 
nois, taking  no  direct  part  in  the  Senatorial  contest,  con- 
fining himself  to  the  advocacy  of  Republican  principles. 
He  still  retained  a  lively  sense  of  the  vital  aid  of  Douglas 
in  defeating  the  Lecompton  conspiracy,  but  he  did  not 
coincide  with  Greeley  in  thinking  he  ought  to  be  re-elected 

1.  "The  offensive  article  was  written  by  a  man  in  Walker's  employ  as  editor  and 
publisher.  Walker  had  full  knowledge  of  it,  but  failed  to  realize  his  responsibility  till 
Colfax  charged  it.  He  denied  it,  probably  meaning  direct  connection  with  it.  His 
purpose  was  not  to  stab  or  shoot  Colfax,  but  to  push  him  off  the  platform,  as  we  heard 
him  say  directly  after  the  occurrence.  He  expressed  the  utmost  gratification  at  the 
restraint  put  upon  him  by  his  friends,  as  he  believed  it  saved  a  bloody  riot.  He  was  a 
very  impulsive  but  a  kind-hearted  man.11— Elkhart  Review. 

He  raised  and  led  a  regiment  to  the  field  during  the  war,  but  soon  resigned,  and  be- 
came afterward  a  leading  spirit  among  the  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  on  account  of 
which  he  was  forced  to  fly  the  country 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  133 

Senator  over  a  Republican.  Irrespective  of  his  former  re- 
lations with  Douglas,  or  of  any  hopes  concerning  him  he 
may  still  have  entertained,  non-interference  in  the  Sena- 
torial contest  was  the  proper  course  for  him  in  his  judg- 
ment, and  it  was  entirely  consistent  with  his  character. 
Writing  editorially  of  the  election  of  Douglas,  he  says  : 
"  A  voter  in  Illinois,  I  would  most  decidedly  have  sup- 
ported Lincoln  ;  between  Buchanan  and  Douglas,  I  would 
have  been  as  decidedly  for  Douglas."  *  "  Everywhere  in 
my  own  canvass,"  he  continued,  "  I  avowed  my  utter  and 
inflexible  hostility  to  the  further  extension  of  slavery  ;  my 
desire  to  consecrate  every  acre  of  our  national  domain  to 
the  uses  and  purposes  of  free  men  and  free  labor  ;  and  my 
unqualified  repudiation  of  the  monstrous  assumptions  of 
the  Supreme  Court  in  the  political  opinions  published  by 
them  in  the  Dred  Scott  case." 

A  banquet  was  given  to  Hon.  N.  P.  Banks,  in  Walt- 
ham,  Mass.,  in  November.  Colfax  was  present,  and  spoke 
in  his  turn.  A  correspondent  of  the  Springfield  (Mass.) 
Republican  writes  of  him  : 

"  He  speaks  with  great  elegance  and  force,  as  well  as  directness  and 
perspicuity.  There  is  more  of  ornament  and  figurative  expression  than 
our  best  Eastern  political  speakers  use,  but  the  popular  effect  is  corre- 
spondingly greater.  He  must  be,  indeed,  a  hard  man  to  beat  on  the 
hustings,  with  his  rich,  glowing,  nervous  style  of  speaking,  since  he  adds 
to  this  the  most  perfect  familiarity  with  political  history.  He  has  been 
here  [Boston]  with  his  wife  this  week,  and  has  received  much  attention 
from  the  Republicans.  No  other  man  of  thirty-five  years  has  so  high 
and  honorable  a  position  in  our  national  politics  as  he  now  holds.  As  a 
consequence,  he  is  marked  for  bitter  opposition  by  the  pro-slavery  Demo- 
crats, and  the  most  determined  efforts  to  defeat  his  re-election  for  a  third 
term  were  made  in  the  recent  Indiana  campaign.2  No  other  district  in 

1.  From  a  speech  in  the  House  :  "  In  going  to  the  different  places  appointed  for  me  to 
speak,  the  Buchanan  men,  at  nearly  every  one  of  them,  sent  to  me  written  questions, 
asking  me  if  I  had  not  been  the  bearer  of  a  letter  from  Judge  Douglas  to  Mr.  Blair,  in 
relation  to  the  Senatorial  election  in  Missouri,  and  asking  me  to  answer  them  while  on 
the  stand.    To  these  I  responded  that  whatever  conversations  were  had  between  Judge 
Douglas  and  myself  were  had  at  his  own  private  house,  under  his  own  roof  ;  my  self- 
respect  forbade  me  to  divulge  them  save  at  Judge  Douglas's  demand."—  Cong.  Globe, 
36th  Congress,  1st  Session. 

2.  To  Mr.  Matthews  he  writes  from  Washington,  in  December  :  "  You  know  Frank, 
Jr.  [Blair],  came  into  my  district  voluntarily,  and  made  four  speeches  in  his  desire  to  help 
me,  but  went  away,  saying,  that  with  the  enthusiasm  he  saw  manifested  for  me,  the 
Administration  could  not  send  enough  money  or  men  into  my  district  to  beat  me." 


134  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

the  country  has  probably  witnessed  such  an  expenditure  of  intellectual 
and  physical  effort." 

Undoubtedly,  thus  early,  influences  originating  in  the 
national  political  capital  were  felt  in  this  comparatively 
obscure  and  unimportant  Congressional  District,  seeking 
to  put  an  end  to  Mr.  Colfax's  career.  Hon.  Thomas  A. 
Hendricks,  then  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office, 
Lieutenant-Governor  Hammond,  Joseph  E.  McDonald, 
and  sundry  lesser  oracles  were  sent  into  the  district  to 
talk  against  him.  This  opposition  grew  in  bitterness  till 
its  object  was  dead,  and  then  it  did  not  altogether  cease. 
"  Reading  had  made  him  a  full  man,  writing  a  correct 
man,  talking  a  ready  man,"  nature  a  gentleman.  His 
command  of  all  his  powers  and  knowledge  was  extraordi- 
nary. His  capacity  seemed  equal  to  any  demand  upon  it, 
his  character  was  without  a  flaw,  his  influence  with  the 
people  promised  to  become  unbounded.  It  was  wise 
policy  on  the  part  of  those  to  whom  he  was  constitutionally 
opposed  to  consign  him  to  obscurity  if  they  could,  and  the 
sooner  the  better. 

Remonstrating  in  1860  with  a  correspondent  of  a  lead- 
ing New  England  newspaper,  then  as  now  famous  for  fur- 
nishing ammunition  to  its  adversaries  with  which  to  attack 
its  friends,  Mr,  Colfax  says  : 

"  The  fact  is,  I  am  hardened  pretty  well  by  long  experience  to  the 
abuse  of  the  enemy,  but  the  strictures  of  friends  pain  me  as  much  as  in 
more  youthful  days,  especially  when  they  are  of  a  character  to  be  caught 
up  and  echoed  by  opponents.  You  do  not  know  what  canvasses  I  have 
had  to  go  through  with  at  every  election.  It  seems  as  though  all  the 
devils  were  let  loose  on  me  ;  and  if  you  think  this  an  exaggeration,  ask 
any  one  you  meet  who  has  lived  in  my  district  during  a  Congressional 
campaign  for  the  last  six  years.  No  such  exertions  are  made  anywhere 
else  within  my  knowledge.  Fortunately,  I  have  always  run  largely 
ahead  of  my  ticket,  several  hundred  Democrats  voting  for  me  each  time  ; 
but  this  makes  the  hate  of  the  leaders  more  intense  and  their  efforts  more 
desperate.  But  for  the  work  done  in  my  district  by  my  friends  they 
would,  however,  overwhelm  me,  for  if  new-comers— and  one  fourth  of  our 
people  are  new  voters  at  each  election,  the  emigration  and  immigration 
both  being  large — believed  a  tithe  of  what  my  enemies  say  about  me,  they 
would  not  vote  for  me  for  fence-viewer.  But  this  is  '  shouldering  my 
crutch,'  like  the  old  soldier,  and  fighting  my  battles  over  again.  Let  it 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  135 

pass.     I  would  not  have  alluded  to  it  except  to  show  you  why  I  felt 
sensitive  to  the  stings  of  your  pointed  peri." 

Passing  through  New  York  he  attended  a  meeting  in 
behalf  of  the  People's  College,  and  spoke  a  good  word  for 
education.  "  That  mysterious  receptacle  of  knowledge, 
the  mind,  could  never  be  filled,"  said  he.  "The  more 
you  pour  into  it,  the  more  it  will  hold,  and  it  imparts 
continually  without  loss."  He  passed  in  review  the  great 
men  of  the  present  and  past  who  had  educated  themselves 
and  become  famous.  "  It  would  be  one  of  the  most  pleas- 
ant acts  of  my  life  to  vote  lands  to  every  State  to  establish 
colleges  in  sufficient  numbers  to  educate  all." 

The  short  session  of  Congress  was  not  important.  He 
writes  Mr.  Matthews  : 

"  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  the  great  Southern  leader,  told  me  this 
morning  that  he  expected  we  would  take  all  the  Territories,  and  I  told  him 
we  should,  God  helping  us.  They  feel  beaten  on  the  old  issue,  and  this 
accounts  for  their  '  bloviating  *  on  Cuba,  Mexico,  Central  America,  and 
4  manifest  destiny.'  If  we  are  prudent  in  1860  we  shall  break  their 
wand  of  power  effectually  and  happily." 

Again  : 

"  My  theory  is  that  this  country  is  a  great  and  glorious  one,  and  that 
the  Union  should  be  perpetual.  But,  first  of  all,  and  at  all  hazards,  I 
think  that  our  primal  duty  is  to  do  right,  and  leave  the  consequences  to 
Him  who  commands  us  to  abstain  from  wrong-doing.  I  don't  think  I 
shall  speak  at  this  session  ;  but  if  I  do  it  will  be  to  rebuke  and  condemn 
this  thieving,  aggrandizing,  '  manifest  destiny '  tendency  to  steal  land — 
coveting  Cuba,  Mexico,  Central  America,  etc.  It  will  not  be  popular, 
for  it  is  our  besetting  sin  as  a  race,  since  our  Saxon  fathers  came  out  of 
the  woods  of  Europe,  to  hanker  for  land  as  a  burglar  does  for  gold.  But 
it  will  be  right,  and  that  will  be  far  better.  I  trust  you  concur  with  me 
in  this." 

To 'Mr.  Bowles  he  writes  in  December,  1858  : 

"  You  see  that  your  idea  of  the  South  wanting  peace  and  quiet  has  not 
been  confirmed.  With  you,  I  have  been  astonished  at  the  reopening  of 
the  war  on  Douglas,  and  the  fight  the  slave  power  intends  to  make  on 
all  who  do  not  succumb.  They  are  getting  new  issues  ready.  A  couple 
of  Alabamians  told  me  to-day  they  had  no  confidence  in  Hammond 
now  !  Still,  if  Douglas  submits  to  tearing  off  his  epaulettes,  and 
appeals  to  the  country  only  inside  of  his  party,  keeping  his  followers 
within  its  bounds,  he  may  save  it  from  the  destruction  on  which  it  seems 


136  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

bent,  and  to  which  I  say  '  good  speed.'  JBut  submission  to  this  inten- 
tional insult  seems  impossible.  Stuart  has  gone  back,  but  Broderick 
progresses  in  the  right  direction,  finely." 

He  resumed  his  old  vigilant  watch  over  the  appropria- 
tions. Leaving  it  to  others  to  make  set  speeches  on  the 
extravagance  of  the  Administration,  he  endeavored  to 
have  the  estimates  reduced,  as  they  were  taken  up,  clause 
after  clause,  for  consideration.  He  moved  to  have  Persia 
struck  out  of  the  Diplomatic  and  Consular  Bill,  the  United 
States  having  no  representative  accredited  to  Persia,  and 
there  being  no  present  necessity  for  one.  This  was  done. 
He  moved  a  reduction  in  the  amount  appropriated  for 
printing  Post-Office  blanks,  and  that  the  work  be  given  to 
the  lowest  responsible  bidder  after  advertising,  which  was 
agreed  to.  When  the  Navy  Bill  came  up,  he  moved  the 
authorization  of  payment  for  defending  suits,  if  any, 
brought  against  Commodore  Paulding  for  his  arrest  of  Will- 
iam Walker.  He  regarded  this  act  of  the  Commodore  as 
akin  to  that  of  his  ancestor,  who  captured  Andre,  the  British 
spy.  His  proposal  was  ruled  out  as  not  germane,  and  on 
taking  an  appeal,  the  appeal  was  overruled.  Many  of  his 
propositions,  offered  in  the  form  of  amendments  to  the  ap- 
propriation bills,  were  ruled  out.  On  one  occasion  he  cited 
twenty  precedents  for  his  action  in  this  respect.  But  it 
availed  not  ;  then,  as  now,  it  was  almost  the  only  chance 
to  get  anything  of  a  general  nature  passed  at  all,  and  it 
4was  not  worth  much.  Supporting  a  bill  reported  from  his 
committee,  authorizing  the  issue  of  land  patents  to  ce.rtain 
Indians,  he  said  :  "  It  ought  to  be  a  principle  of  our  Gov- 
ernment, so  far  as  it  is  consistent  with  the  rights  of  the  Ind- 
ians, to  open  up  the  country  to  settlement  and  improve- 
ment." The  bill  was  rejected,  but  the  country  long  since 
came  up  to  the  young  statesman's  position,  at  least  in 
opinion. 

His  correspondence  during  this  session  is  full  and  inter- 
esting. He  notes  with  pain  the  tendency  of  the  ruling  party 
to  carry  out  the  logic  of  its  premises  on  the  subject  of 
slavery,  and  the  gradual  yielding  of  the  Northern  Demo- 
crats. He  says  : 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  137 

"  We  were  told  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  repealed  as  a 
measure  of  freedom.  Then  came  the  long  and  reckless  strife  to  make 
Kansas  a  slave  State.  Next  in  order  was  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  de- 
claring that  the  Constitution  carried  slavery  into  the  Territories  ;  and 
now  the  reopening  of  the  African  slave  trade  is  boldly  advocated— nay, 
it  is  reopened.  They  are  selling  a  cargo  of  slaves  in  Georgia  to-day,  and 
a  grand  jury  refuses  to  indict  the  officers  of  a  captured  slaver.  With  all 
this,  the  attempts  to  increase  the  army,  to  place  the  war-making  power  in 
the  hands  of  the  President,  to  seize  Northern  Mexico  and  Central 
America,  the  determination  to  acquire  Cuba  at  any  rate,  and  the  vicious 
striking  at  every  Northern  interest.  We  have  fallen  on  strange  times 
when  the  solid  South  in  the  House  and  a  score  of  Northern  Democrats 
dare  to  vote  '  No  '  on  a  resolution  approving  existing  laws  against  the 
African  slave  trade." 

The  power  of  the  South  in  the  House  had  now  de- 
parted, and  it  was  crumbling  in  the  Senate.  Its  last  strong- 
hold was  in  the  Administration.  The  Cabinet  knew  what 
it  wanted,  and  was  resolved  to  have  it.  Having  failed  in 
Kansas,  the  South  began  to  contemplate  secession  in  ear- 
nest. The  President's  newspaper  organ  at  the  Capital  dis- 
cussed a  reported  conspiracy  in  the  South  to  destroy  the 
Union  when  it  could  no  longer  be  controlled.  Mr.  Colfax 
writes  : 

"Is  it  not  full  time  that  the  government  of  this  country  was  in  the 
hands  of  men  who,  instead  of  trimming  and  shrinking  before  such  a  con- 
spiracy, would,  with  Jackson's  boldness  and  self-reliance,  rebuke  and 
suppress  it  ?  It  grows  by  the  license  it  receives,  for  its  Senators  make 
no  secret  of  their  position— that  when  they  can  no  longer  use  the  Union 
and  the  Government  in  the  interest  of  slavery,  both  will  be  valueless  to 
them.  The  greatest  need  of  this  country  now  is  an  Administration  which 
will  endeavor,  in  the  language  of  the  Constitution,  '  to  secure  the  bless- 
ings of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity.'  " 

He  introduced  a  bill  to  organize  the  Territory  of  "  Co- 
lona"  (now  Colorado),  where  gold  had  been  recently  dis- 
covered.1 It  was  reported  from  the  Committee  on  Terri- 

1.  He  writes  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Matthews,  January  24th,  1859  :  "  I  have  worked  up  the  Ter- 
ritorial Committee  [two  thirds  hitterly  pro-elavery]  to  recede  from  their  former  vote 
against  the  new  Territory  I  proposed,  and  they  will  now  report  in  favor  of  it.  This  is 
quite  a  success,  as  the  President  was  dead  against  it,  openly  and  earnestly.  He  doesn't 
like  me  or  any  of  my  works,  and  I  don't  want  him  to.  But  the  Committee,  while  report- 
ing it,  will  put  in  pro-slavery  provisions  that  we  cannot  vote  for.  You  cannot  imagine 
the  devices  of  the  slave  power  till  you  look  it  in  the  eye  and  watch  its  acts.  They  de- 
cided against  my  name,  which  I  did  not  altogether  like  myself,  preferring  '  Montana '  or 
'Centralia,'  but  the  name  doesn't  matter." 


138  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

tories  in  connection  with  Arizona  and  Dakota  as  "  Jeffer- 
son," but  with  pro-slavery  features  in  the  bills  which 
caused  the  House  to  reject  them.  Oregon  was  admitted 
into  the  Union,  the  member  from  the  Ninth  Indiana  voting 
with  fifteen  Republicans  for  admission,  all  other  Repub- 
licans voting  against  it.1  He  writes  : 

"  I  never  felt  a  doubt  as  to  the  proper  course,  and  any  one  who  hesi- 
tates in  what  he  thinks  duty  requires  is  not  fit  to  be  here.  Oregon  is 
now  to  govern  herself,  instead  of  having  rulers  sent  her  by  pro-slavery 
Administrations  three  thousand  miles  away.  The  question  of  admitting  a 
State  should  not  be  decided  on  the  politics  of  her  first  Senators,  since  in 
these  times  they  could  hardly  be  expected  to  be  anything  but  pro-slavery. 
Oregon  is  a  free  State,  however,  and  it  will  have  to  be  an  extraordinary 
case  which  shall  cause  me  to  vote  against  other  free  States  that  are  to 
follow." 

When  the  Thirty-fifth  Congress  met,  the  friends  of  the 
Administration  organized  it  without  difficulty.  Their  pet 
measures  were  the  admission  of  Kansas  under  the  Lecomp- 
ton  Constitution  ;  the  grant  to  the  President  of  thirty  mill- 
ions to  apply  in  his  discretion  toward  the  acquisition  of 
Cuba  ;  the  lodgment  of  the  war-making  power  in  his 
hands,  so  far  as  Mexico  and  Central  America  were  con- 
cerned ;  the  establishment  of  an  armed  protectorate  over 
Sonora  and  Chihuahua  ;  the  increase  of  the  rate  of  post- 
age, and  the  reissue  of  twenty  millions  of  Treasury  notes. 
All  of  them  but  the  reissue  of  the  Treasury  notes  met  the 
fate  of  Lecompton,  and  that  was  carried  through  the 
House  only  by  personal  appeals  of  Cabinet  Ministers  on 
the  last  night  of  the  session.  The  defeat  in  Kansas  was 
like  a  stroke  of  paralysis  to  the  Administration.  Its  own 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  could  not  secure  the  pas- 
sage of  any  measure  for  the  improvement  of  the  revenue. 

1.  Mr.  Greeley  writes  him,  February  14th,  1859  :  "  I  do  think  you  fifteen  bolters  ought 
to  be  whipped.  At  least,  you  ought  to  have  had  a  full  share  in  the  '  Buck  and  Breck ' 
demonstration  of  Saturday  night,  and  listened  to  their  speeches  on  Cuba,  expansion,  and 
'  manifest  destiny. '  It  is  a  great  responsibility  which  a  few  take  when  they  beat  their 
own  party,  and  I  should  not  like  to  take  it  without  the  best  of  reasons.  But  the  milk  is 
spilt,  and  I  only  hope  that  Joe  Lane  and  '  Delusion's  '  votes  will  beat  your  Senators.  .  .  . 
Well,  we  are  going  to  be  defeated  in  1860.  Everything  done  this  winter  in  Washington 
foreshadows  it.  You  have  made  no  good  point  but  passing  the  Homestead  Bill,  and 
that  is  going  to  be  killed  in  the  Senate,  without  giving  us  the  benefit  of  a  veto  from  '  Old 
Buck.1  So  good-night  to  the  [Republican  Party." 


THIRTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS.  139 

The  House  materially  razeed  the  appropriation  bills,  espe- 
cially the  Navy  Bill,  upon  startling  exposures  of  corrup- 
tion and  profligacy  in  the  administration  of  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment. The  House  resisted  the  Senate's  proposed  increase 
in  the  rate  of  postage,  the  Senate  insisted,  and  so  the  Post- 
Office  Appropriation  Bill  failed.  To  punish  the  contu- 
macy of  the  House,  the  Senate,  or  the  Presidential  veto, 
killed  the  Agricultural  College  Bill,  the  Homestead  Bill, 
and  a  bill  for  the  improvement  of  the  St.  Clair  Flats  ;  and 
the  Senate  retained  the  two  fraudulent  Senators  from  In- 
diana, Bright  and  Fitch,  in  their  seats,  notwithstanding  the 
protest  of  their  State.  If  it  was  not  for  the  Thirty-sixth 
Congress,  the  Thirty-fifth  might  rank  as  the  most  dis- 
graceful and  demoralizing  and,  at  the  same  time,  as  the 
most  imbecile  in  our  annals. 

After  the  adjournment,  but  before  leaving  Washington 
for  home,  Colfax  wrote  Mr.  Bowles  : 

"  You  have  seen  how  Congress  broke  up,  Toombs  playing  over  again 
his  '  let-discord-reign  '  part  in  the  Speaker's  contest  of  1849.  I  think  we 
have  them  at  a  decided  disadvantage.  Many  of  our  folks  wanted  our  side 
to  revolutionize,'  filibuster,'  etc.,  against  the  Treasury-note  amendment, 
but  we  could  not  have  stood  on  that.  They  wanted  to  prevent  the  Senate's 
amendments  to  our  bill  being  considered,  and  let  it  fail  from  lack  of  two 
thirds  to  take  it  up.  But  Morrill,  Winter  Davis,  the  Washburnes,  Stari- 
ton,  myself,  and  others  insisted  not,  exciting  their  wrath  for  a  while. 
We  wanted  the  stand  on  the  Senate's  increasing  the  postage  rate,  which 
is  far  stronger  and  more  defensible  for  us,  and  all  our  folks  now  acknowl- 
edge that  it  is  far  better,  putting  the  revolutionary  boot,  as  it  did,  on 
our  opponents'  legs  instead  of  our  own. 

"  We  have  been  razeeing  the  appropriation  bills  more  than  you  sup- 
pose, so  much  that  I  fear  we  shall  not  be  able  to  show  the  retrenchment 
we  should,  next  session,  especially  as  we  will  have  to  commence  with  a 
twenty-million  Post-Office  deficiency.  But  our  folks  got  a  taste  of  their 
power,  and  they  slashed  away  a  million  here  and  another  there,  without 
mercy.  Not  counting  the  reissue  of  Treasury  notes,  which  is  not  an  ap- 
propriation proper,  and  leaving  out  the  bill  that  Toombs  and  Mason 
choked  to  death,  the  actual  appropriations  are  less  than  fifty  millions. 

"As  to  the  vote  [on  the  admission  of  Oregon],  the  more  I  think  of  it 
the  better  I  like  it.  Had  we  all  gone  with  the  crowd,  there  would  have 
been  a  million  and  a  half  of  Republicans  all  over  the  land  to-day  on  the 
defensive,  explaining  why  free-State  Representatives  rejected  a  free 
State,  and  they  would  have  been  explaining  till  after  the  Presidential 


140  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

election,  losing  votes  all  the  time  by  their  explanations.  The  Democracy 
would  have  recovered  much  lost  ground  by  appearing  to  favor  admission 
of  a  free  State,  and  being  foiled  in  it  by  the  Republicans.  Se ward's 
speech  in  its  favor  would  have  been  quoted  against  us  as  a  self-condem- 
nation, and  they  would  have  made  the  people  believe  that  we  were  not 
only  opposed  to  slave  States,  but  also  to  free  States,  unless  they  were 
Republican.  I  am  glad  that  enough  of  us  had  the  firmness  to  stand  fast 
to  avert  this  suicidal  policy." 


CHAPTER  V. 

THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS. 

1859-1861, 

POLITICS  IN  1859.— EDWARD  BATES  FOR  PRESIDENT. — SUCCESS  IN  1860  A 
DUTY. — JOHN  BROWN  AT  HARPER'S  FERRY. — EIGHT  WEEKS'  BALLOT- 
ING FOR  SPEAKER. — CHAIRMAN  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  POST-OFFICES 
AND  POST-ROADS. — IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  SERVICE. — DAILY  OVER- 
LAND  MAIL. — His  WAY  IN  THE  HOUSE. — PRESIDES  IN  A  NIGHT  SES- 
SION, VOTE  OF  THANKS. — RE-ELECTED,  A  WALK  OVER.— SECESSION. — 
COMPROMISE  WINTER. — SOUTHERN  DELEGATIONS  WITHDRAW  FROM 
CONGRESS.  —  FIRST  PRACTICAL  COUNTER-MOVE. — "VOTES  BETTER 
THAN  SPEECHES." — COMPROMISE  IMPOSSIBLE. — SEIZURE  OF  GOVERN- 
MENT PROPERTY  BY  THE  SECEDED  STATES. — CRITICAL  TIMES  IN 
WASHINGTON. — STRIFE  FOR  OFFICE. 

UPON  the  adjournment  of  Congress  in  March,  the  Con- 
gressman again  became  editor.  A  new  press  was  bought, 
and  as  the  paper  entered  upon  its  fifteenth  year  it  was  en- 
larged to  its  size  previous  to  the  fire  of  1855.  "  Schuyler 
gets  up  a  good  paper,"  said  the  North  Iowa  Times;  "a 
little  too  political  generally  for  our  taste,  and,  by  the  way, 
its  politics  don't  suit  us  either  ;  but  Schuyler  is  a  member 
of  Congress,  spoken  of  for  Speaker,  and  threatened  with 
the  nomination  for  Governor  of  Indiana,  and  it  is  expected 
that  he  will  overload  his  paper  with  politics." 

The  battles  of  the  late  Congress  were  discussed  by  the 
editor,  confusion  eliminated,  and  the  responsibility  for 
what  was  well  or  ill  done,  or  was  not  done  at  all,  placed 
where  it  belonged.  The  Republicans  carried  the  important 
spring  elections,  but  were  imperfectly  organized  and  un- 
disciplined. The  editor  contemplated  this  with  some  im- 
patience, and,  commenting  on  the  town  election  of  South 
Bend,  he  said  that  "  while  the  Republicans  could  have 
elected  their  entire  ticket,  part  of  them  had  chosen  to  elect 


142  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

two  of  their  political  opponents  over  their  political  friends." 
He  admitted  their  perfect  right  to  do  so,  but  for  himself, 
he  said  he  took  pleasure  in  working  and  voting  for  his 
political  friends  rather  than  for  his  political  adversaries. 
After  numberless  defeats  in  the  most  offensively  aggressive 
warfare  on  the  North,  the  South  was  able  to  keep  the  field, 
by  reason  of  the  high  organization,  the  strict  discipline, 
the  systematic  and  unceasing  work  of  the  party  it  con- 
trolled. The  North,  on  the  other  hand,  strong  in  prin- 
ciples and  votes,  frittered  away,  from  its  lack  of  organiza- 
tion and  discipline,  the  fruits  of  one  victory,  while  another 
battle  was  drawing  on. 

His  frequent  absences  to  deliver  orations  or  addresses 
were  indicated  by  interesting  letters  to  his  paper  from  the 
points  he  visited.  At  the  request  of  the  Republican  State 
Committee  of  Minnesota,  he  canvassed  that  State  in  Sep- 
tember, travelling  forty  to  sixty  miles  and  speaking  every 
day,  for  four  weeks.  It  was  an  important  battle-ground, 
and  several  speakers  of  national  reputation  took  part  in 
the  canvass.  A  Republican  (Mr.  R.  N.  McLaren)  wrote 
him  from  Red  Wing,  Minn.,  in  October  :  "  We  have  met 
the  enemy,  and  they  are  ours  ;  they  are  flying  to  the  hills, 
they  are  hunting  for  hiding-places  among  '  the  mountains 
of  Hepsidam/  Hurrah  !  Hurrah  !  Our  cannon  is  roar- 
ing, it  is  a  glorious  day  !" 

In  the  summer  and  onward  till  the  next  summer  news- 
paper discussion  had  large  reference  to  the  coming  Presi- 
dential election.  The  Register  held  that  the  Republicans 
must  succeed,  or  the  title  of  "  American  citizen"  would 
become  a  disgrace  instead  of  an  honor.  Living  in  a 
doubtful  State,  and  an  October  State,  he  was  impressed 
with  the  necessity  of  choosing  a  candidate  who  would  draw 
to  his  support  the  anti-Lecompton  Democrats.  With  this 
in  view,  he  favored  Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri,  for  the  Re- 
publican nomination.1 

I.  Mr.  Bates  had  declined  a  portfolio  in  a  Whig  Cabinet  years  before.  He  was  an 
early  and  steadfast  friend  of  emancipation  in  Missouri,  and  had  freed  his  own  slaves. 
"  His  views  were  never  the  echo  of  other  men's  opinions,  nor  could  he  brook  factious 
dictation.  Those  who  understood  him  felt  little  occasion  to  be  proud  of  any  difference 
with  him."  He  was  the  first  member  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Cabinet  decided  on  ;  he  was  Lin- 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  143 

He  writes  Mr.  Bowles  in  March,  1859  : 

"  I  have  been  in  correspondence  with  Mr.  Bates  for  many  years.  He 
always  disclaims  Republicanism,  but  goes  with  us  on  all  the  issues  of  the 
past  five  years.  He  is  a  modest,  unassuming  man,  not  disposed  to  reach 
out  for  the  Presidency,  but  of  course  would  not  decline  it.  His  strength 
in  the  North  lies  in  his  being  regarded  as  nearest  right  and  more  worthy 
of  trust  than  any  other  Southern  statesman,  although  he  may  destroy  this 
by  a  single  injudicious  remark.  I  am  not  committed  to  him  for  Presi- 
dent, but  he  knows  that  I  have  thought  a  great  deal  about  it,  and  favor- 
ably, and  he  has  thus  far  confided  in  me,  and  conferred  about  matters 
frankly  and  freely.  Blair  says  he  can  carry  Missouri,  if  brought  out 
right,  and  Illinois,  of  course,  he  being  quite  strong  in  Southern  Illinois, 
where  our  cause  is  weak.  And  Winter  Davis  says  he  can  carry  Mary- 
land and  Delaware,  if  we  do  not  repel  them  by  too  strong  a  platform. 
Winter  wants  a  great  anti-Administration  Opposition  Convention,  but  I 
don't  see  how  it  can  be  done.  Ignoring  the  Republican  organization 
might  cause  a  formidable  bolting  convention,  and  there  are  too  many 
people  who  believe  in  its  principles  ardently  to  hazard  that.  I  have  some- 
times thought  that  possibly  two  conventions,  a-la-Massachusetts,  might 
be  easier,  if  the  ticket  for  both  could  be  understood  beforehand.  But 
the  Lord  has  it  all  in  charge.  He  will  bring  it  right.  He  kept  us  from 
winning  in  1856,  when  winning  would  have  been  fruitless— a  powerless 
Administration  contending  against  a  united  Democracy  in  both  Houses. 

"  Bates  and  Banks  would  be  a  magnificent  ticket,  but,  as  you  say, 
Governor  Seward  stands  in  the  way.  He  is  determined  on  having  the 
nomination,  thinks  he  would  poll  the  entire  German  and  Irish  vote  ;  that 
Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  though  so  Hunker  and  American,  would 
go  for  him  cordially,  on  account  of  the  tariff  ;  that  thousands  of  Democrats 
in  New  York  and  elsewhere  would  vote  for  him,  etc.  He  is  a  very  able 
man,  there  is  no  disputing,  but  I  have  great  fears  that  the  many  preju- 
dices against  him,  including  what  are  really  unjust,  would  be  a  heavy 
dead  weight  to  carry  in  the  election.  You  know  our  folks  bolt  on  all 
kinds  of  excuses,  whims,  and  prejudices,  while  the  other  side  quarrel, 
but  vote  together,  generally." 

A  year  later,  in  March,  1860,  he  writes  Bowles  again  : 

"  You  say,  speaking  about  the  printing  squabbles,  '  I  dread  our 
national  success.'  I  don't  think  you  need  to.  If  Seward's  reliable 
friends  are  not  awfully  deceived,  he  is  to  be  nominated,  and  on  the  first 
ballot  (for  he  will  be  the  strongest  then),  and  we  shall  go  forward  to  a 
defeat  as  inevitable  as  election-day.  Even  if  the  Democratic  ranks  are 
all  shattered  and  disorganized  at  Charleston,  his  nomination  will  be  the 
solvent  that  will  reunite  and  compact  them.  He  is  as  exacting  for  the 

coin's  cordial  friend  as  well  as  judicious  adviser  nearly  to  the  end  of  his  first  term,  resign- 
ing for  personal  reasons  an  office  which  he  had  never  sought,  out  had  filled  to  Lincoln's 
entire  satisfaction. 


144  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

nomination  as  ever  Henry  Clay  was,  and  with  tenfold  more  prejudices 
against  him.  He  told  Medill  [of  the  Chicago  Tribune],  the  other  day, 
that  if  not  nominated  he  would  turn  his  back  on  public  life  forever.  He 
and  his  friends  are  determined  on  it,  and  will  force  it  through,  though 
certain  defeat  stares  them  in  the  face.  That  is  a  minor  matter  with  him. 

"His  late  moderate  speech  helps  the  current  in  his  favor.  But  when 
we  go  into  the  campaign  and  talk  retrenchment,  they  will  parade  on  the 
other  side  eighty  millions  per  year  voted  by  his  vote  ;  his  speech  at 
Cleveland  in  1848 — '  Slavery  must  be  abolished,  and  you  and  I  must  do 
it ' — and  his  letter,  only  nine  years  before,  justifying  the  law  allowing 
slaveholders  to  bring  their  slaves  into  New  York  and  hold  them  for  nine 
months.  His  friends  insist  that  he  will  receive  enormous  accessions  from 
the  foreign  vote,  and  I  sincerely  hope  so.  But  it  will  be  a  surprise  to  me 
if  it  occurs. 

"  It  is  well  known  that  I  believe  success  to  be  certain  with  Bates,  if 
our  Republicans  will  take  as  sound  an  anti-slavery  extensionist  and  prac- 
tical emancipationist  as  he  is.  He  can  rally  an  outside  vote  to  our 
banners  that  will  insure  success  from  the  day  he  is  nominated,  if  our 
Radicals  will  go  for  him.  I  have  not  time,  even  at  this  hand-gallop,  to 
argue  it. 

"  But  I  do  believe  success  to  be  a  duty.  If  beaten  this  year,  Dred 
Scottism  will  be  ratified  and  affirmed  by  the  Executive  and  Legislative 
branches  of  the  Government,  thus  fastening  it  on  us  by  all  three  branches  ; 
the  Supreme  Court  will  be  filled  up  with  young  judges  for  life,  to  forge 
chains  for  us  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Our  friends  at  the  South,  by  the 
reign  of  terror  already  inaugurated  there,  will  be  driven  into  silence  or 
exile.  The  Northern  public  mind,  wearied  by  two  Presidential  elections 
thrown  away  by  a  divided  opposition,  will,  I  fear,  relapse,  and  I  need 
not  paint  any  darker  picture  of  Lemon  case  decisions,  Cuba,  etc.  With 
a  formidable  third  party  in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois,  we  are  beaten,  even  if  we  poll  a  million  majority  in  the  other 
free  States.  Seward's  nomination  will  make  just  that  third  party,  and 
with  it  certain  defeat. 

"  But  I  must  break  off.  And,  in  conclusion,  of  all  the  Radicals,  old 
*  Rough  and  Ready  '  Wade  would  suit  me  best.  His  pluck  and  grit 
would  atone  with  many  for  his  '  ultraism,'  as  they  call  it.  But  with 
Seward  or  Chase  defeat  is  inevitable." 

Early  in  June  he  discussed  this  subject  in  his  paper, 
contending  that  union  of  all  voters  opposed  to  slavery  ex- 
tension, whether  technically  Republicans  or  not,  was  the 
duty  of  the  hour.  Victory  was  missed  in  1856  by  di- 
vision ;  to  lose  the  coming  battle  from  the  same  cause 
would  be  criminal.  The  article  was  widely  copied,  and  in 
the  less  sure  Republican  States  with  approval. 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  145 

Not  conservatism,  but  radical,  aggressive  Republican- 
ism was  regarded  by  many  influential  men,  particularly 
old  Whigs,  as  the  peril  of  the  times.  "  The  intemperate 
zeal  of  the  Republican  leaders  is  now  the  only  danger  which 
threatens  defeat  to  us/'  Thomas  Cor"win  writes  him. 
"  It  did  us  mischief  in  our  recent  convention  in  Ohio.  It 
seems  to  me  impossible  that  any  one  not  wilfully  blind  can 
fail  to  see  (what  you  assert)  that  slavery  extension  ceases 
when  the  Democratic  Party  is  conquered.  Vengeance  to 
the  South,  and  not  love  of  South  and  North,  seems  to  be 
the  animating  principle  of  too  many  of  those  who  pro- 
claim themselves  the  only  friends  of  human  rights." 

"  We  have  the  power  to  create  a  safe  and  upright  Ad- 
ministration and  reform  the  Government,"  Washington 
Hunt  writes.  "  All  can  agree  that  this  ought  to  be  done, 
and  it  is  easy  to  see  how  it  can  be  done.  It  is  only  neces- 
sary that  moderate  and  sensible  counsels  should  prevail. 
But  if  the  contest  is  to  be  placed  on  extreme  and  impracti- 
cable issues  we  must  expect  to  see  the  present  evils  and 
abuses  continued,  Heaven  knows  how  long.  I  am  glad  to 
know  that  the  cause  of  union  is  to  have  your  able  and  in- 
fluential advocacy." 

Charles  A.  Dana  writes  :  "  I  wish  you  would  let  me 
know  how  the  Bates  movement  stands.  If  Bates  can  be 
put  forward  as  a  representative  of  the  emancipation  cause 
in  Missouri  he  will  be  the  strongest  candidate  we  can 
have.  With  any  other  man  we  shall  have  the  Fillmore 
split  again/' 

"  I  should  long  ago  have  thanked  you  for  your  power- 
ful plea  for  union  in  1860,"  writes  Henry  Winter  Davis. 
"  I  think  with  you  that  it  is  a  duty  and  not  a  choice,  and 
I  think  so  not  at  all  because  I  am  in  a  minority  in  the 
South,  but  because  you,  though  in  a  majority  in  the  North, 
are  in  a  minority  in  the  United  States.  I  am  profoundly 
convinced  that  division  in  1860  is  defeat,  and  that  a  Re- 
publican nomination  is  fatal  if  made  by  Republicans  alone 
on  their  platform  of  1856,  and  without  the  concurrence  of 
the  non-Republican  masses."  Mr.  Davis  deprecated  the 
resolutions  of  the  Ohio  Convention,  striking  at  the  Know- 


146  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

Nothings  of  Massachusetts,  and  proposing,  for  political 
purposes,  the  reorganization  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
"  Ohio  is  leading  off  on  the  false  scent  of  1856 — the  at- 
tempt to  reform  the  Administration  by  legislation,  requir- 
ing concert  of  all  three  branches — instead  of  dashing  at  the 
head,  the  Presidency,  which  is  the  key  of  the  position. 
With  it  everything  may  be  done  that  ought  to  be  done, 
against  us,  nothing  can  be  done  without  our  consent,  and 
without  it  everything  else  is  absolutely  worthless/' 

Abraham  Lincoln  writes  him,  regretting  that  he  (Lin- 
coln) missed  seeing  him  when  he  was  at  Jacksonville, 
111.,  as  Fourth  of  July  orator.  Mr.  Lincoln  says  :  "  Be- 
sides a  strong  desire  to  make  your  personal  acquaintance, 
I  was  anxious  to  speak  with  you  on  politics  a  little  more 
freely  than  I  can  well  do  in  a  letter.  My  main  object 
in  such  conversation  would  be  to  hedge  against  divisions 
in  the  Republican  ranks  generally,  and  particularly  for  the 
contest  of  1860.  The  point  of  danger  is  the  temptation  in 
different  localities  to  '  platform  '  for  something  that  will 
be  popular  just  there,  but  which,  nevertheless,  will  be  a 
firebrand  elsewhere,  and  especially  in  a  National  Conven- 
tion. As  instances,  the  movement  against  foreigners  in 
Massachusetts  ;  in  New  Hampshire,  to  make  obedience  to 
the  Fugitive-Slave  Law  punishable  as  a  crime  ;  in  Ohio,  to 
repeal  the  Fugitive -Slave  Law  ;  and  squatter  sovereignty  in 
Kansas.  In  these  things  there  is  explosive  matter  enough 
to  blow  up  half  a  dozen  national  conventions,  if  it  gets 
into  them  ;  and  what  gets  very  rife  outside  of  conventions 
is  very  likely  to  find  its  way  into  them."  Lincoln,  as  well 
as  Davis,  writes  at  length,  urging  Colfax  to  disseminate 
their  views — through  his  paper,  his  correspondence,  and 
on  the  stump,  so  as  to  "  avoid,  to  some  extent  at  least, 
these  apples  of  discord." 

"How  about  the  Presidency?"  writes  Sam  Bowles. 
"  Do  you  look  to  Bates  yet  as  the  Moses  to  lead  us  out  of 
the  wilderness  ?  I  do  not  give  him  up,  but  he  lacks,  I 
fear,  the  robustness  for  the  crisis.  He  can  be  the  man  if 
he  wishes,  but  he  has  got  to  do  and  say  something  more 
than  he  has.  A  simple  repudiation  of  the  Dred  Scott  de- 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  147 

cision  that  '  slavery  is  national,'  is  what  we  must  have 
from  him,  and  I  do  not  see  how  we  can  take  less." 

Joseph  Medill  writes  :  ' '  Mr.  Bates  is  a  very  nice  man,  but 
he  has  not  said  and  dare  not  say  to  the  world  that  the  Con- 
stitution recognizes  no  property  in  man,  that  the  common 
law  recognizes  none,  that  justice  and  genuine  democracy 
recognize  none,  and  that  the  general  Government  must 
recognize  none.  That's  our  position.  Whenever  we  fall 
below  it  we  sink  into  the  quicksands,  and  will  soon  disap- 
pear. Let  us  be  beaten  with  a  representative  man  rather 
than  triumph  with  a  '  Union-saver.'  ' 

Mr.  Medill  expressed  the  sentiment  of  the  more  radical 
Republicans. 

To  anticipate  a  little,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Indi- 
ana, and  Illinois  might  have  named  the  candidate,  since 
they  were  the  real  battle-ground  ;  but  instead  of  uniting 
they  presented  three  candidates — Lincoln,  Bates,  and 
Cameron.  Cameron's  candidacy  meant  nothing  but  a 
trade,  and  his  name  was  withdrawn  after  the  first  ballot 
demonstrated  Seward's  strength.  Bates  was  not  a  Re- 
publican, and  in  his  published  letters  was  too  long  in 
reaching  a  position  satisfactory  to  the  sure  Republican 
States.  Colfax  believed  that  if  he  had  stood  in  the  early 
part  of  1859  where  he  did  a  year  later,  he  would  have  been 
the  choice  of  the  conservative  element  of  the  party.  The 
impression  prevailed  that  the  Germans  would  not  support 
him.  Meanwhile,  Lincoln's  candidacy,  not  openly  pressed 
for  first  place  until  a  short  time  before  the  convention,  had 
rapidly  grown  in  favor.  He  had  been  identified  with  the 
party  from  the  beginning,  and  when  the  trial  came  he 
proved  the  only  alternative  of  Seward.1  John  D.  Defrees, 
who  was  at  the  Convention,  writes  Colfax  :  "  The  hard- 

1.  Lincoln's  friends  felt  absolutely  sure  that  he  could,  and  that  Seward  could  not,  be 
elected.  The  Convention  sitting  in  Chicago  gave  them  many  advantages,  and  they 
worked  night  and  day  with  the  energy  of  desperation,  pledging  Lincoln  to  everything. 
The  choice  of  Cabinet  positions  was  promised  to  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Indiana,  and 
these  promises  were  kept,  although  made  without  Lincoln's  knowledge.  "  They  have 
gambled  on  me  all  around,"  Lincoln  said  after  the  nomination,  "bought  and  sold  me  a 
hundred  times.  I  cannot  begin  to  fill  the  pledges  made  in  my  name."  Colfax  regarded 
Lincoln's  strength  as  local  in  comparison  with  that  of  Bates.  He  believed  that  Bates,  if 
nominated,  would  be  supported  by  a  large  element  outside  of  the  Kepublican  Party. 


148  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

est-fought  battle  of  the  age  has  just  closed  in  victory.  I 
did  not  expect  it  last  night,  but  Providence  smiled  on  us 
this  morning.  Greeley  slaughtered  Seward,  and  saved  the 
party.  He  deserves  the  praises  of  all  men,  and  gets  them 
now.  Wherever  he  goes  he  is  greeted  with  cheers.  I  have 
not  seen  Weed  since  Monday.  We  worked  hard  [for 
Bates],  but  could  not  make  it.  They  are  now  balloting 
for  Vice-President,  and  I  suppose  that  Hamlin  will  be  nom- 
inated, though  I  prefer  Hickman.  We  Bates  men  of  Indi- 
ana concluded  that  the  only  way  to  beat  Seward  was  to  go 
for  Lincoln  as  a  unit.  We  made  the  nomination.  The  city 
is  wild  with  enthusiasm."  Greeley  went  into  the  Conven- 
tion on  a  proxy  from  Oregon  as  a  Bates  man.  He  had 
given  Bates  the  support  of  his  great  paper.  He  writes 
Colfax  : 

"  As  to  Chicago,  I  don't  see  why  more  of  you  didn't  come  on  to  help, 
when  the  matter  was  so  vital.1  My  share  of  the  load  was  unreasonably 
heavy,  considering  where  I  live,  and  the  power  of  the  sore-heads  to 
damage  me.  Bartlett,  Pike,  Chaffee,  and  yourself— all  should  have  been 
on  hand.  Chaffee,  I  think,  kept  away  from  fear  of  Weed's  resentment. 
I  don't  think  you  wanted  to  come  face  to  face  with  Weed  in  a  case  where- 
in his  heart  was  so  set  on  a  triumph.  Pike  ought  to  have  been  able  to  do 
something  with  Maine,  and  Bartlett  with  Massachusetts — the  two  worst- 
behaved  delegations  in  the  Convention.  I  ought  not  to  have  been  obliged 
to  expose  myself  to  the  deadliest  resentment  of  all  the  Seward  crowd,  as 
I  did.  But  what  I  must  do,  I  will,  regardless  of  consequences." 

Mr.  Bates  writes  him  : 

"  As  for  me,  I  was  surprised,  I  own,  but  not  at  all  mortified,  at  the 
result  at  Chicago.  I  had  no  claim — literally  none — upon  the  Republicans 
as  a  party,  and  no  right  to  expect  their  party  honors  ;  and  I  shall  cherish, 
with  enduring  gratitude,  the  recollection  of  the  generous  confidence  with 
which  many  of  their  very  best  men  have  honored  me.  So  far  from  feel- 
ing beaten  and  depressed,  I  have  cause  rather  for  joy  and  exultation  ;  for, 
by  the  good  opinion  of  certain  eminent  Republicans,  I  have  gained  much 
in  standing  and  reputation  before  the  country — more,  I  think,  than  any 
mere  private  man  I  have  ever  known." 

The  elections  were  contested  on  the  same  lines  as  in  the 

1.  Colfax  writes  Bowles  :  "  It  is  well  known  that  I  do  not  intend  to  be  at  Chicago, 
that  I  am  opposed  to  Congress  adjourning  during  the  session  of  the  Convention,  and 
hope  no  member  of  Congress  will  be  a  Delegate  there,  so  that  the  people  will  be  repre- 
sented, and  not  Congress.1' 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  149 

previous  year.  The  Republican  Convention  of  St.  Joseph 
County,  of  which  Mr.  Colfax  was  President,  denounced 
Democratic  opposition  to  the  Homestead  Bill  and  the  at- 
tempt to  increase  the  rate  of  postage  ;  denounced  the  aban- 
donment of  adopted  citizens  abroad,  the  political  doctrines 
of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  the  reopening  of  the  foreign 
slave  trade,  and  the  general  corruption  and  extravagance 
of  the  Administration  party.  It  favored  free  homes  on  free 
soil  for  free  men  ;  affirmed  slavery  to  be  an  evil  existing 
only  by  virtue  of  local  statute  law  ;  declared  that  Ameri- 
can citizens  abroad,  whether  native  or  naturalized,  are  en- 
titled to  protection  ;  declared  for  internal  improvements, 
inclusive  of  a  Pacific  Railroad,  for  the  promotion  of  peace, 
and  for  retrenchment  in  national  expenditure.  Mr.  Col- 
fax  took  the  stump  on  his  return  from  Minnesota.  The 
county  elections  in  the  district  and  throughout  the  State 
were  largely  carried  by  the  Republicans. 

Toward  the  end  of  October  the  Kansas  chickens  began 
to  come  home  to  roost.  John  Brown,  having  witnessed  the 
endeavor  to  enslave  free  men  in  Kansas  by  force  of  arms, 
undertook  to  liberate  slaves  in  Virginia  in  the  same  way. 
Descending  in  the  night  with  twenty  men  on  Harper's 
Ferry,  he  took  possession  of  the  United  States  Armory,  and 
in  the  morning  began  to  take  the  leading  citizens  prison- 
ers, and  to  free  the  slaves.  Troops  and  militia  gathered 
by  hundreds,  he  was  assailed  by  twenty  to  one,  several  of 
his  men  were  killed,  and  he  was  severely  wounded.  As 
soon  as  he  recovered,  the  State  of  Virginia  tried,  con- 
victed, and  executed  him.  His  bearing  in  the  fight,  and 
more  especially  in  the  trial,  won  the  respect  of  the  Vir- 
ginians and  of  all  other  men.  "  He  was  not  a  man  pos- 
sessed of  convictions,"  some  one  has  said  ;  "  he  was  him- 
self an  embodied  conviction  ;"  and  as  early  as  the  murder 
of  Lovejoy  had  solemnly  devoted  himself,  "  God  helping 
him,"  to  the  destruction  of  slavery.  His  sons  had  gone  to 
Kansas  as  settlers,  and  were  so  harassed  and  preyed  upon 
by  the  Missourians  that  they  sent  to  their  father  for  arms. 
To  make  sure  that  they  would  get  the  arms,  he  went  with 
them,  tarried  in  Kansas,  and,  gathering  about  him  a  few 


150  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

men  of  like  temperament,  became  a  prominent  factor  in 
putting  an  end  to  the  marauding,  murdering  raids  from 
Missouri.  When  the  free-State  men  got  the  upper  hand  in 
Kansas,  he  engaged  in  running  slaves  out  of  Missouri  into 
Canada,  and  afterward  undertook  the  same  business  in 
Virginia.  Great  efforts  were  made  to  implicate  prominent 
Republicans  in  his  plans,  but  to  no  purpose,  and  the  suc- 
ceeding Northern  elections  showed  that  Brown's  raid  had 
had  no  appreciable  political  effect.  The  editor  of  the 
Register  alluded  to  it  as  "  the  insane  act  of  an  insane  man." 
He  disclaimed  it  for  himself  and  his  part)'.1 

On  the  meeting  of  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress  in  Decem- 
ber (1859),  the  spirit  which  a  year  later  precipitated  seces- 
sion long  obstructed  the  organization  of  the  House.  Only 
at  the  end  of  eight  weeks  was  a  Speaker  elected.  The 
Representatives  had  removed  into  their  new  hall  since  the 
struggle. of  four  years  ago.  There  was  more  room  in  the 
galleries,  and  men's  passions  were  worse  stirred.  Four 
years  of  determined  aggression  by  the  slave  power  had 
done  their  work.  The  Northern  elections  had  all  gone 

1.  "Are  the  Locofocos  going  to  'cross  the  river  of  their  difficulties  at  Harper's 
Ferry  V  "  Medill  writes  him.  "  It  is  a  most  unfortunate  affair,  and  gives  the  corrupt 
demagogues  whom  we  had  unhorsed  ammunition  with  which  to  renew  the  fight.  How 
much  will  it  damage  us  in  your  opinion  ?  I  fear  the  affair  may  defeat  us  in  New  York 
and  New  Jersey  and  hurt  us  in  Wisconsin.  At  the  great  American  ratification  meeting  in 
Baltimore  Winter  Davis  charged  the  whole  blame  on  the  Locofocos,  and  made  his  points 
stick." 

Mr.  Greeley  writes  him:  "  Don't  be  downhearted  about  the  old  Brown  business.  Its 
present  effect  is  bad,  and  throws  a  heavy  load  on  us  in  this  State — I  am  afraid  it  will  elect 
the  Brooks-American  half  of  the  Democratic  ticket— but  the  ultimate  effect  is  to  be  good 
—see  if  it  is  not.  It  will  drive  on  the  slave  power  to  new  outrages.  It  settles  the 
Charleston  coffee  of  Douglas.  It  will  probably  help  us  to  nominate  a  moderate  man  for 
President  on  our  side.  It  presses  on  the  '  irrepressible  conflict '  ;  and  I  think  the  end  of 
slavery  in  Virginia  and  the  Union  is  ten  years  nearer  than  it  seemed  a  few  weeks  ago.  I 
know  you  are  not  a  Universalist ;  but  wait  and  see.  Are  you  openly,  decidedly  for  Sher- 
man for  Speaker  ?  I  am.  But  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  we  can  elect  him,  if  Cobb 
gets  the  Democrats  all  to  vote  for  a  South  American." 

And  a  few  days  later  :  "  I  despair  of  you.  Your  reasons  for  voting  for  Grow  are  just 
like  those  which  entangled  you  [and  others]  with  Lew  Campbell  in  1856,  and  led  us 
into  all  manner  of  troubles.  There  are  two  reasons  against  supporting  Grow— he  is  not 
the  man  for  the  place,  he  can't  be  elected.  You  are  just  as  well  aware  of  these  facts  as  I 
am.  The  first  question  to  be  asked  with  reference  to  every  candidate  is  :  Is  this  the  road 
to  Byzantium  ?  If  not,  I  don't  go  it,  and  you  have  no  right  to.  If  the  Americans  want 
the  Clerk,  and  will  come  in  and  behave  themselves,  I  go  for  giving  it  to  them,  and  mak- 
ing Forney  Printer.  The  House  election  is  but  the  prelude  to  the  Presidential,  and  I  want 
to  elect  every  man  on  the  first  pop,  by  fifteen  or  twenty  majority.  We  can  do  it  if  selfish- 
ness don't  defeat  us,  and  it  mustn't." 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  15  I 

Republican,  and  the  election  of  a  Republican  President 
was  in  the  air.  The  Clerk  of  the  preceding  House,  who 
presided,  held  that  everything  was  debatable,  and  there 
was  of  course  no  previous  question.  A  vote  could  not  be 
taken,  not  even  a  ballot  for  Speaker,  without  unanimous 
consent.  Debate  on  the  Administration  side  took  the 
widest  range,  and  through  fifty  speakers  that  side  declared 
itself  for  Disunion  whenever  a  Republican  President  should 
be  elected.  Demonstrations  to  frighten  the  North  from 
its  purpose,  and  to  familiarize  the  public  ear  with  Disunion 
sentiments,  began  on  the  first  day  of  the  session.  The 
rudest  language  was  used.  Personal  encounters  were  nar- 
rowly avoided,  and  duels  only  because  the  Northern  Repre- 
sentatives declined  them.1  John  Sherman,  of  Ohio,  re- 
ceived on  every  ballot  115  votes — within  three  of  a  majority 
— but  he  had  informally  commended  a  book  on  slavery, 
written  by  a  North  Carolinian,  without  having  seen  it,  which 
the  supporters  of  slavery  chose  to  regard  as  incendiary. 
A  resolution  was  introduced,  that  because  of  this  recom- 
mendation, John  Sherman  should  never  be  Speaker.  The 
Republicans  exhibited  their  capacity  for  government  by 
the  self-control  with  which  they  listened,  almost  in  silence, 
to  a  constant  tirade  of  denunciation  from  the  other  side 
during  all  these  weeks,  contenting  themselves  with  insist- 
ing that  the  only  business  before  the  House  was  to  organize. 
They  desired  to  vote  on  the  plurality  rule,  and,  as  in 
1855-56,  Colfax  urged  it  by  every  consideration,  citing,  in 
support  of  its  constitutionality,  which  was  questioned,  the 
precedents  of  1855  and  of  1849,  and  also  the  fact  that  all 
the  members  held  their  seats  under  that  rule.  He  demon- 
strated that  the  recognition  of  the  rule  is  a  necessity  in  the 

1.  Colfax  writes  his  mother,  January  15th  :  "  We  are  still  just  where  we  started  six 
weeks  ago,  except  that  our  Southern  friends  have  dissolved  the  Union  forty  or  fifty  times 
since  then.  Certainly  we  have  been  the  most  patient  and  long-suffering  people  in  the 
world,  to  bear  as  stoically  as  we  have  the  torrent  of  obloquy  poured  on  us  in  a  steady 
stream  all  that  time.  If  ever  we  organize  the  tables  will  be  turned,  and  we  shall  see  how 
these  doctors  like  their  own  physic.  Nearly  everybody  goes  armed,  and  a  general  field 
fight  is  expected  by  many.  But  I  think  the  almost  universal  arming  on  all  sides  is  a  bond 
and  guarantee  of  peace.  The  Southern  men  understand  that  any  attacks  will  be  met  on 
the  instant  and  at  every  hazard,  and  in  the  two  or  three  threatened  rows  we  have  had, 
they  endeavored  to  restrain  their  impetuous  men  more  than  I  have  ever  noticed  before." 


152  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

organization  of  any  political  body,  since  without  it  all  gov- 
ernments by  election  may  at  any  time  come  to  an  end.  On 
the  ipth  of  January,  by  skilful  questioning,  he  brought 
out  the  fact  that  some  half  a  hundred  Democrats  had 
pledged  themselves  in  writing  to  resist  by  every  parlia- 
mentary means  any  vote  by  the  House  on  the  plurality 
rule.  "He  carried  himself  in  splendid  style  and  to  the 
admiration  of  all  his  friends,"  writes  Medill  for  the  Chi-' 
cago  Tribune;  "he  smoked  out  the  disorganizing  pledge 
most  beautifully."  At  the  same  time  he  announced  the 
willingness  of  the  Republicans  "  to  vote  without  discus- 
sion on  any  and  every  proposition  now  pending  or  which 
may  be  pending." 

Meanwhile  President  Buchanan's  message  was  received, 
and  by  contrast  it  made  men  recall  even  President  Pierce 
with  a  feeling  akin  to  regret.  Kansas  was  present  with  a 
constitution,  adopted  by  her  people,  excluding  slavery,  but 
that  failed  to  interest  the  President.  He  seemed  to  almost 
gloat  over  the  Dred  Scott  decision  ;  he  desired  a  Territorial 
Slave  Code,  and  the  power  to  seize  new  territory  on  the 
South  for  slavery.  The  Senate  was  engaged  in  an  effort, 
more  or  less  statesmanlike,  to  crush  Douglas,  and  he  was 
trying  to  outbid  Buchanan  for  the  Presidential  nomination 
of  his  party.  Threats  of  disunion,  unless  the  Republicans 
ceased  their  resistance  to  the  demands  of  slavery,  were 
the  burden  of  Administration  Senatorial  oratory.  The 
slave  States  were  passing  laws  banishing  or  enslaving  free 
negroes.  Kansas,  by  the  way,  having  become  hopelessly 
free,  the  South  had  no  further  use  for.  She  was  to  be 
kept  out  of  the  Union  indefinitely,  and  she  was  kept  out 
until  after  these  gentlemen  had  themselves  gone  out. 
Parties  were  merging  rapidly  into  Disunion  and  Union 
parties.  In  the  course  of  various  and  varied  coalition  ex- 
periments in  the  House,  the  Know-Nothings  and  Demo- 
crats stumbled  on  the  same  candidate,  and  he  received  a 
majority  vote  ;  but  certain  members  changed  their  vote  be- 
fore the  ballot  was  announced.1  This  brought  a  few  men 

1.  To  his  mother  Coif  ax  writes,  January  80th  :  "  We  are  at  the  end  of  the  Speaker 
contest.    Last  Friday  we  were  beaten  at  one  time,  the  Democrats  and  Know-Nothiugs 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  153 

who  had  steadily  voted  "  scattering"  over  to  the  Republi- 
cans, on  condition  that  the  Republican  candidate  be 
changed.  Thereupon  Mr.  Sherman  withdrew  his  name, 
saying  he  "  had  stood  ready  to  do  so  at  any  time  when  it 
should  appear  that  any  one  of  his  political  friends  could 
combine  more  votes  than  he."  No  nomination  was  made 
in  his  place,  but  when  the  name  of  the  first  Republican  on 
the  roll — Charles  Francis  Adams — was  called,  he  responded 
"  William  Pennington."  Every  Republican  followed  this 
lead,  and  they  gained  one  vote  on  this  ballot,  but  still  re- 
quired three  votes  to  elect.  On  each  of  two  succeeding 
ballots  they  gained  one  adherent,  and  on  the  next  (forty- 
fourth)  ballot,  one  more  came  to  them,  and  made  Mr.  Pen- 
nington, of  New  Jersey,  Speaker.1 

Mr.  Colfax  was  appointed  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Post-Offices  and  Post-Roads,  a  position  which  afforded 
ample  scope  for  his  activity  and  administrative  capacity. 
He  recognized  the  importance  of  his  place.  "  No  expendi- 
tures made  by  us,"  said  he,  "  are  wiser  or  more  beneficent 
than  those  that  furnish  improved  mail  facilities  for  the 
people — the  only  direct  manner,  indeed,  in  which  the  bless- 
ings of  government  are  dispensed  to  all  its  citizens."  The 
service  was  very  crude  and  restricted  compared  with  what 
it  is  now.  It  was  especially  demoralized  at  that  moment 
from  the  failure  of  the  Post-Office  Appropriation  Bill  in 
the  previous  Congress,  and  the  consequent  curtailment 
and  discontinuance  of  service  by  the  Postmaster-General. 

having  concentrated  their  votes  on  a  pro-slavery  Know-Nothing  of  North  Carolina,  and 
half  a  dozen  of  our  Republican  Know-Nothings  from  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  hav- 
ing voted  for  him  complimentarily  at  the  opening  of  the  roll-call.  They  changed  back, 
however,  defeating  him,  but  the  excitement  for  a  short  time  on  all  sides  and  in  the  crowded 
galleries  was  unexampled.  We  then  effected  an  adjournment  over  to  Monday,  and  spent 
yesterday  in  caucussing.  Many  of  our  members  objected  to  leaving  Sherman,  even  to 
avoid  defeat,  but  as  I  believe  success  is  a  duty,  I  was  not  among  them." 

1.  "  Let  me  tell  you  what  I  think,"  Greeley  writes  him,  February  3d,  1860  :  "  I  think 
that  Speaker  fight  was  badly  fought  throughout— without  nerve,  tact,  or  resolution.  I 
think  Sherman  might  have  been,  should  have  been,  elected.  I  can't  see  why  the  plural- 
ity rule  was  not  moved  and  voted  on,  or  else  the  Disunionists  obliged  to  win  general  dis- 
gust by  filibustering  through  two  or  three  days.  I  cannot  guess  why  you  did  not  insist 
on  two  or  three  night  sessions.  In  short,  I  am  in  a  state  of  general  disgust.  A  party  so 
gloriously  backed  up  by  the  press  and  country  ought  to  have  won." 

Unfortunately,  Col  fax's  letters  to  Greeley,  written  almost  daily  for  thirty  years,  were 
destroyed  upon  being  read.  Hence  the  author  cannot  give  his  responses  to  Mr.  Greeley's 
rough  but  good-natured  criticisms. 


154  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Mail  contractors  had  been  running  a  year  without  pay, 
and  were  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  Without  calling  in 
question  the  motives  of  the  Department  officers,  Mr.  Colfax 
protested  against  the  harsh  treatment  to  which  the  con- 
tractors were  being  subjected,  and  carried  through  Con- 
gress a  joint  resolution  for  their  relief. 

The  demands  on  the  service  were  fast  increasing  from 
the  rapid  extension  of  settlement  in  the  West  and  North- 
west. The  revenue  system  was  in  a  bad  way  :  disburse- 
ments exceeded  collections,  and  resort  was  had  to  borrow- 
ing to  meet  the  deficiency.  The  Committee  on  Ways  and 
Means  cut  down  estimates  remorselessly,  and  ruled  out  the 
incurring  of  new  obligations  whenever  it  could  muster  the 
power.  Nevertheless,  the  postal  service,  as  it  was  on  the 
4th  of  March,  1859,  was  restored  by  the  House,  under  Col- 
fax's  management,  with  pay  for  service  actually  rendered 
in  the  mean  time.  The  Senate  refused,  however,  again 
and  again,  to  concur  in  this  restoration,  and  on  the  last 
day  of  the  session,  to  save  the  Post-Office  Appropriation 
Bill,  the  House  was  obliged  to  recede  from  its  position. 
At  the  short  session  secession  had  intervened,  and  the 
matter  was  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  Postmaster-General. 

Improvements  making  the  service  less  cumbersome 
and  a  greater  convenience  to  the  people,  wherever  origi- 
nating, found  in  Colfax  a  zealous  and  intelligent  advocate. 
Such  were  provisions  for  the  return  of  undelivered  letters, 
when  the  request  and  the  address  were  written  on  them  ; 
reducing  the  rate  on  drop  letters  delivered  by  carriers  to 
one  cent,  and  authorizing  letter-boxes  in  the  suburbs  of 
cities  ;  making  printed  matter,  maps,  engravings,  cut- 
tings, seeds,  etc.,  mailable  matter  at  one  cent  per  ounce  ; 
allowing  the  end  of  term  of  subscription,  as  well  as  name 
and  address,  to  be  written  or  printed  on  papers  and  periodi- 
cals ;  instructing  postmasters  to  distribute  to  individual 
subscribers  papers  sent  to  clubs  in  one  wrapper  ;  permit- 
ting newspaper  dealers  to  receive  their  packages  by  mail, 
paying  pro  rata  for  each  package  at  the  time,  at  the  same 
rate  as  regular  subscribers  ;  authorizing  the  impression  of 
stamps  on  letter  sheets.  Some  of  these  provisions  looked 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  155 

to  increase  of  revenue  by  drawing  business  from  the  ex- 
press companies  to  the  post.  These,  and  a  hundred  like 
improvements  since,  have  made  the  postal  service  almost 
ideally  perfect  ;  but  each  of  them  required  an  act  of  Con- 
gress, and  invariably  met  with  opposition  from  the  con- 
servative element  in  Congress  and  elsewhere. 

The  Chairman  of  the  House  Committee  had  a  sharp  eye 
to  retrenchment  as  well  as  to  improvement.  The  compen- 
sation of  postmasters  had  increased  sixty  per  cent  in  six 
years,  while  receipts  had  increased  but  twenty-five  per 
cent.  The  pay  of  clerks  had  increased  four  hundred  per 
cent  in  eleven  years.  Colfax  endeavored  to  limit  the  num- 
ber and  pay  of  route  agents.  He  desired,  he  said,  to  re- 
duce the  compensation  of  postmasters  paid  in  excess  of  one 
hundred  dollars  a  year,  not  only  because  it  was  extrava- 
gant, but  to  diminish  the  scramble  for  post-offices  on  the 
change  of  Administrations.  "  While  I  want  the  mail  service 
restored  to  the  people,  I  believe  the  administration  of  the 
postal  system  should  be  governed  by  economy,  and  wish 
the  axe  of  retrenchment  to  fall  where  it  ought  to  fall,  lop- 
ping off  needless  expenses,  useless  offices,  excessive  sal- 
aries." 

Several  of  his  less  important  propositions  failed,  but 
only  on  one  important  measure  did  the  House  disagree 
with  him — a  Senate  bill  in  aid  of  a  telegraph  line  to  the 
Pacific.  This  was  referred  to  his  committee,  and  a  substi- 
tute reported  back  to  the  House,  reducing  the  land  and 
money  subsidy  and  the  charge  for  messages,  incorporating 
other  salutary  restrictions,  and  naming  certain  gentlemen 
engaged  in  telegraphing  in  the  States  as  corporators,  the 
committee  believing  that  no  others  would  be  likely  to 
undertake  the  construction  of  the  line  on  any  terms.  The 
House  struck  out  the  named  corporators,  and  in  substance 
offered  the  franchise  to  the  lowest  responsible  bidder  on 
the  work.  The  Senate  adopted  the  House  substitute,  re- 
instating the  corporators  ;  but  the  House  again  striking 
them  out  and  insisting,  the  bill  finally  passed  in  that 
shape.  The  telegraph  line  was  completed  October  26th, 
1861. 


156  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

But  his  great  work  in  this  Congress,  in  connection  with 
Senator  Latham,  of  California,  and  others,  was  the  re- 
organization of  the  mail  service  between  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific.  The  existing  service  was  in  as  unsatisfactory  a 
state  as  anything  well  could  be.  It  was  by  different  land 
and  water  routes,  at  long  intervals  and  low  speed.  The 
full  contract  price  was  two  million  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars  a  year  ;  the  revenue,  two  hundred  and  seventy- five 
thousand  dollars.  The  contractors  were  naturally  opposed 
to  any  change,  and  so  were  the  express  companies,  which 
were  carrying  letters  at  two  to  eight  shillings  each.1  The 
House  and  the  Senate  did  not  see  this,  or  much  of  any- 
thing else,  in  the  same  light.  In  1853  Colfax  had  noted 
in  the  Register  that  the  firm  carrying  the  mail  from  Inde- 
pendence to  Santa  Fe  had  offered  to  carry  it  semi-weekly 
to  California  for  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year,  as 
against  a  round  million  paid  the  steamers.  He  had  then 
discussed  the  advantages  of  carrying  it  overland  instead  of 
by  sea,  in  the  way  of  encouraging  settlement,  and  urged 
its  favorable  consideration  by  Congress. 

At  that  time  the  Mormons  had  just  left  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Council  Bluffs  for  the  Great  Salt  Lake  Valley,  and 
the  western  slope  of  Iowa  had  begun  to  be  settled.  In 
1854  the  right  bank  of  the  Missouri  River  was  still  un- 
broken Indian  country,  but  after  the  passage  of  the 
Nebraska  Kansas  Bill  the  Indian  title  to  large  tracts  was 
quickly  extinguished.  Four  years  later  gold  was  found 
on  Cherry  Creek,  near  Denver,  and  the  next  year  but  one 
(1860)  silver  on  the  Washoe  Range.  The  first  coach  of 
the  "  Central  Overland  California  and  Pike's  Peak  Express 
Company"  arrived  at  Denver  via  the  Smoky  Hill  June 
1 2th,  1859.  The  company  was  composed  of  Majors,  Rus- 
sell, and  others,  and  they  ran  from  Leavenworth  to  Sacra- 
mento. The  line  was  transferred  to  the  Platte  in  August, 
starting  from  Atchison.  On  the  3d  of  April,  1860,  these 
men  established  a  weekly  Pony  Express  between  St.  Joseph 

1.  The  author  has  been  one  of  a  line  of  hundreds  of  men  in  Central  City,  Col.,  on  a 
Saturday  evening,  awaiting  his  turn  with  the  rest  for  the  chance  of  a  letter  at  one  dollar 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  157 

and  San  Francisco  ;  speed,  two  hundred  miles  a  day  ; 
postage,  five  dollars  an  ounce.  Coaches  with  mail  had  run 
weekly  between  Independence  and  Santa  Fe,  between 
Council  Bluffs  and  Salt  Lake  City,  and  between  Sacra- 
mento and  Salt  Lake  City  for  some  years,  and  a  through 
mail  (letters  only)  by  the  southern  (Butterfield)  route  had 
first  arrived  at  St.  Louis  on  the  loth  of  October,  1858. 

Life  on  these  long  stage  lines  had  been  about  as  free  for 
men  as  for  horses.  It  was  fascinating  in  some  of  its  feat- 
ures, as  the  earth  and  sea  are,  but  the  conditions  were  as 
conducive  to  brutality  as  to  heroism.  There  was  but  the 
weekly  mail  coach  to  remind  one  of  the  world  of  civiliza- 
tion. Life  was  mainly  in  the  saddle,  and  fleecing  over- 
land emigrants,  directly  or  indirectly,  afforded  the  only 
variety  in  the  pastoral  pursuits  of  the  few  and  widely-scat- 
tered rancheros.  There  were  military  posts  on  the  Pecos 
and  the  Rio  Grande  ;  there  were  Forts  Kearney,  Laramie, 
and  Bridger  ;  but  there  was  no  civil  authority.  Strong 
men,  quick  with  the  pistol,  became  "  chiefs"  by  common 
consent,  and  administered  a  rude  justice  on  the  long  lines. 
But  conditions  were  changing  ;  gold  at  Pike's  Peak  (now 
Colorado)  and  silver  at  Washoe  (now  Nevada)  indicated 
other  mining  fields,  and  they  were  soon  found  in  Oregon 
and  Arizona,  in  Idaho  and  Montana.  The  organization  of 
the  Rocky  Mountain  region  had  become  a  necessity.  Many 
of  Colfax's  constituents  had  gone  to  the  mountains,  and 
this  gave  them  additional  interest  to  him. 

He  introduced  a  bill,  which  became  law,  providing  for 
mail  service  in  Western  Kansas  (Pike's  Peak),  commencing 
July  ist,  and  looked  after  its  passage  through  the  Senate  ;' 
also  a  bill  inviting  proposals  for  carrying  the  entire  be- 
tween-seas  mail  by  one  overland  route — the  contractors  to 
choose  it ;  these  proposals  to  be  laid  before  Congress 

1.  Speaking  at  a  Colorado  State  agricultural  fair,  years  afterward,  Coif  ax  said:  "I 
shall  never  forget,  after  having  secured  the  first  application  for  this  region,  and  the  con- 
sequent establishment  of  the  first  post-office  in  the  mountains,  how  many  letters  from  the 
mining  camps  reached  me,  written  in  rough-and-ready  language,  but  some  of  them  blotted 
with  tears,  telling  how  they  rejoiced  that  they  could  at  last  receive  letters  regularly  from 
the  loved  ones  in  distant  homes,  and  could  repay  their  replies  with  a  three-cent  postage- 
stamp,  instead  of  the  precious  gold-dust  it  had  cost  them  before  for  their  uncertain  trans- 
mission by  express." 


158  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

later  in  the  session,  and  if  satisfactory  to  Congress,  the 
authorization  of  a  contract  to  follow.  This  bill  was 
strangled  in  the  Senate,  but  the  gist  of  it  appeared  in  a 
Senate  amendment  to  the  Post  Route  Bill,  providing  for  a 
daily  overland  mail  between  St.  Louis  and  San  Francisco, 
to  be  let  to  the  lowest  bidder.  The  Post  Route  Bill,  sent 
early  in  the  session  to  the  Senate  by  the  House,  was  not 
returned  till  the  last  day  of  the  session,  and  then  with 
ninety-nine  amendments.  Colfax  warmly  urged  its  con- 
sideration, but  the  House  refused  to  suspend  the  rules,  94 
to  55,  not  two  thirds. 

At  the  short  session  he  carried  an  amendment  to  the 
Senate  amendment,  providing  for  a  daily  mail  between  St. 
Joseph,  Mo.,  and  Placerville,  Cal.,  semi- weekly  service  to 
Denver  and  Salt  Lake  City,  inclusive  ;  time,  twenty  days 
for  a  thousand  pounds  of  mail  per  day,  thirty-five  days  for 
the  remainder,  at  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year. 
The  Senate  now  desired  to  merge  the  Butterfield  route  and 
contract  in  this,  but  fearful  of  losing  the  bill  altogether, 
finally  concurred  in  it  as  it  came  from  the  House,  and 
tacked  the  consolidation  of  the  two  routes  and  contracts 
on  the  Post-Office  Appropriation  Bill.  This  in  turn  Colfax 
carried  through  the  House.  It  provided  for  tri-weekly 
service  to  Denver  and  Salt  Lake  City,  for  the  continuance 
of  the  Pony  Express  at  two  dollars  an  ounce  postage,  five 
pounds  for  the  Government  free,  with  some  minor  modifi- 
cations, and  made  the  pay  one  million  a  year.  All  Cali- 
fornia letters  were  required  to  pay  ten  cents  postage.  The 
monthly  ocean  service  between  San  Francisco  and  Olympia 
was  changed  to  a  land  service  through  California,  Oregon, 
and  Washington,  and  the  weekly  steamer  service  on 
Puget  Sound  enlarged  to  a  semi- weekly.1 

1.  Colfax  and  Latham  remained  in  Washington  after  the  adjournment  until  the  con- 
tract was  let.  and  at  the  invitation  of  Latham  and  other  Californians,  Colfax  and  John 
Sherman  intended  to  cross  over  in  the  first  coach,  starting  about  the  middle  of  June,  1861, 
but  that  was  not  to  be.  The  city  authorities  of  St.  Joseph,  Mo.,  invited  Colfax  to  visit 
the  city  and  attend  a  banquet  in  his  honor,  which  he  did  in  April.  General  Bela  M. 
Hughes,  now  of  Colorado,  presided  at  the  dinner.  The  Sf.  Joseph  Journal  said  :  "  If  the 
people  of  the  whole  land  felt  as  that  audience  did  while  the  guest  of  the  city  was  speak- 
ing, we  would  soon  see  peace  restored.  He  can  bear  with  him  the  assurance  from  us 
that  his  sojourn  among  us  did  great  good,  and  contributed  to  soften  the  acerbity  of 
political  feeling  and  bring  about  pleasanter  relations  among  ourselves." 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  159 

The  Pacific  States  and  the  intervening  Territories  were 
now  as  well  supplied  with  mail  facilities  as  was  possible 
without  a  railroad,  and  a  daily  overland  mail  on  a  central 
route  was  the  first  practical  step  toward  a  railroad.  It  was 
a  great  work,  requiring  exhaustless  enthusiasm  as  well  as 
resources,  pertinacity,  and  tact.  Possibly  it  could  not 
have  been  done  at  that  time  if  the  South  had  not  with- 
drawn its  Representatives  from  Congress.  With  them 
went  much  of  the  natural  opposition,  and  their  going  in- 
clined the  East  to  look  toward  its  Pacific  sea-front  with 
new  solicitude.  It  established  the  reputation  of  the  Chair- 
man of  the  House  Postal  Committee  as  a  capable  executive 
officer. 

He  was  an  adept  in  the  art  of  getting  his  way  with  a 
legislative  body.  He  was  truthful,  self-possessed,  clear- 
headed, alert  ;  courteous  under  all  circumstances  ;  patient 
with  opposition,  whether  sincere  or  malicious  ;  patient  with 
inattention,  with  stupidity,  and  even  with  rudeness.  He 
knew  all  his  rights  under  the  rules,  and  used  them  ;  he 
knew  the  rights  of  others,  and  respected  them.  His  was 
the  hand  of  iron  in  a  velvet  glove.  He  knew  how  and  when 
to  yield  or  to  be  firm  ;  and  how  to  seem  to  yield  while  not 
yielding  at  all.  Perfectly  informed  as  to  the  matter  in 
hand,  his  statements  were  clear  and  compact,  his  facts 
marshalled  to  compel  the  desired  conclusion.  He  allowed 
opponents  to  do  most  of  the  talking,  answered  all  ques- 
tions frankly,  accepted  amendments  if  not  materially  ob- 
jectionable, never  repeated  himself,  never  denounced  or 
appealed,  seldom  argued,  but  pressed  directly  forward  to 
his  object — a  vote. 

"He  will  help  you,"  Defrees  writes  him  of  Greeley  ; 
"  but  he  intimated  that  your  position  as  leading  business 
member  on  the  floor,  with  such  a  constituency  to  back  you, 
was  far  preferable  to  a  Cabinet  appointment."  His  prov- 
ince was  not  political,  it  was  administrative.  The  restora- 
tion of  discontinued  service  on  the  South-eastern  seacoast 
was  as  much  his  concern  as  the  establishment  of  new 
service  to  Pike's  Peak,  and  he  devoted  as  much  energy  to 
the  one  as  to  the  other.  He  took  little  part  in  political  dis- 


l6o  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

cussion,  even  under  the  pressure  of  secession,  giving  his 
time  and  energies  to  securing  the  best  possible  administra- 
tion of  the  postal  service. 

From  the  quickness  of  his  perceptions  and  his  natural 
courtesy  and  fair-mindedness,  he  was  a  born  presiding 
officer.  His  principles  had  strengthened  his  naturally  fine 
qualities,  and  practice  without  variation  had  made  them 
habits.  On  the  occasion  of  a  twenty-six  hours'  session, 
June  6th,  Speaker  Pennington,  wearied  out,  called  him  to 
the  Chair,  and  retired  from  the  House.  The  protracted 
session  was  brought  on  by  the  objection  of  the  Democrats 
to  the  Republicans  making  political  speeches  in  Committee 
of  the  Whole  without  a  quorum,  which  had  long  been  the 
practice  of  all  parties.  If  they  could  no  longer  do  this 
without  a  quorum,  the  Republicans  determined  that  they 
would  have  a  quorum.  The  committee  rose  and  reported 
the  absentees  to  the  House,  and  proceedings  under  a  call 
of  the  House  continued  all  night.  Such  proceedings  are 
usually  good-natured  but  disorderly.  The  continuous  fire 
of  motions,  questions,  and  points  of  order  put  a  great 
strain  on  the  Chair.  Worn  out  in  turn  at  last,  Colfax  sent 
for  Speaker  Pennington,  and  upon  his  taking  the  Chair, 
the  thanks  of  the  House  to  the  Speaker  pro  tern.,  moved  by 
a  Democratic  leader,  were  unanimously  voted  "  for  the  in- 
dustrious, able,  and  impartial  manner  in  which  he  has  pre- 
sided over  the  House  for  the  last  twelve  hours/' 

"  He  has  a  better  practical  understanding  of  the  rules 
and  of  general  parliamentary  principles  than  any  man  in 
the  House,"  wrote  an  observer  to  the  Utica  Morning  Herald, 
"  and  possesses  an  equanimity  of  temper  and  a  happy 
courtesy  of  manner,  which  enabled  him  to  steer  through 
the  difficulties  of  that  unhappy  night  in  a  way  that  com- 
manded and  elicited  the  praise  of  all  parties."  "He 
showed  the  greatest  firmness,  ability,  and  endurance," 
said  the  Pittsburg  Chronicle,  "and,  better  than  all,  the 
rarest  impartiality."  1 

1.  "  Mr.  Colfax  is  quite  a  young  man,  with  a  pale,  intellectual,  and  amiable  face, 
good  physical  development,  being  about  five  feet  eight,  and  weighing  one  hundred  and 
forty  pounds.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Eepublican  Party,  but  is  a  moderate  partisan,  so  far 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  l6l 

In  common  with  all  the  North-western  members,  he  sup- 
ported the  imposition  of  a  duty  of  sixteen  cents  a  bushel 
on  flaxseed,  because  it  was  for  the  benefit  of  the  farming 
interest,  an  interest  too  often  lost  sight  of,  he  thought, 
in  adjusting  protective  duties.  He  protested  against  the 
exclusion  of  certain  newspaper  reporters  from  the  hall,  be- 
cause they,  or  their  papers,  had  applied  the  same  epithets 
to  Representatives  that  Representatives  applied  to  one 
another.  He  deplored  the  lack  of  parliamentary  decorum 
on  the  part  of  both,  but  insisted  that  one  or  two  reporters 
should  not  be  made  scapegoats.  Reporting  from  a  con- 
ference committee  on  the  Homestead  Bill,  he  said  :  "We 
accepted  a  half-way  measure  rather  than  allow  the  whole 
to  fail,  but  we  regard  it  as  only  a  step  toward  a  compre- 
hensive and  liberal  homestead  policy  ;  and  we  notified  our 
conferrees  of  the  Senate  that  we  should  demand  this  until 
we  got  it." 

On  another  occasion  he  said  : 

"  The  most  beneficent  act  that  could  be  inscribed  on  your  statute-book 
is  the  Homestead  Bill.  It  would  diminish  poverty,  suffering,  and  crime. 
It  would  build  up  a  hardy,  strong,  industrious  yeomanry,  tilling  the  soil 
they  own,  and  defending  their  homes.  It  would  tender  to  those  whose 
only  capital  is  their  own  sinews  and  muscles,  willing  hands  and  honest 
hearts,  a  home  in  the  boundless  West.  It  would,  by  giving  them  inde- 
pendent freeholds,  incite  them  to  surround  their  firesides  with  comfort, 
and  to  rear  families  in  habits  of  industry  and  frugality,  which  form  the 
real  elements  of  national  greatness  and  power.  And  as  that  country  is 
greatest  in  which  there  is  the  greatest  number  of  happy  firesides  and 
homes,  it  would  give  vigor  and  strength  to  the  Republic. 

"  All  over  the  land  you  see  the  houseless  and  landless,  where  misery 
and  want  sit  down  at  their  fireside,  and  penury  and  sorrow  surround  their 
death-bed  ;  where,  with  no  spot  on  the  green  earth  they  can  call  their 
own,  they  earn  a  precarious  subsistence,  not  knowing  one  week  where 
the  bread  for  their  families  is  to  come  from  the  next.  All  these  it  beckons 
to  the  West,  saying  :  '  Here  is  a  home  with  God's  free  air  above  you  and 
the  virgin  soil  beneath  your  feet.  Work  and  be  independent.  Here  the 
land  you  till  shall  be  your  own  ;  the  cabin  you  rear  shall  be  your  own  ; 
the  forest  you  subdue  shall  be  your  own  ;  the  fields  you  farm  shall  be 

at  least  as  I  have  observed  his  course  in  the  House.  He  has  the  general  respect  of  the 
House,  and  there  is  no  man  on  the  floor  who  can  more  readily  secure  the  attention  of 
members,  or  who  is  more  competent  to  express  clearly  and  forcibly  his  views  on  any  sub- 
ject under  discussion."—  Chester  County,  Pa.,  Democrat. 


l62  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

your  own.     This  at  last  is  your  home.'     What  nobler  stimulant  to  indus- 
try and  well-doing  could  a  great  country  hold  out  to  its  people  ? 

"  Under  it  the  tide  of  emigration  and  civilization  would  move  forward 
compactly,  and  in  its  path  would  spring  up  neighborhoods,  towns,  cities, 
and  States,  churches,  mechanics'  shops,  and  schools,  and  all  the  varied 
development  of  industrial  communities.  Settlements  would  become  com- 
pact and  self-supporting.  Millions  of  bushels  of  products  per  year  would 
be  added  to  our  agricultural  wealth  ;  and,  as  if  by  magic,  new  stars  added 
to  our  flag  and  new  glory  to  our  name.  These  pioneers  would  prove  the 
soldiers  of  civilization,  and  their  victories  would  be  for  the  advancement 
and  prosperity  and  development  of  our  boundless,  inexhaustible  re- 


The  Homestead  Bill  of  this  session  was,  in  truth,  but 
half  a  loaf  ;  the  homesteader  was  required  to  pay  sixty-two 
and  a  half  cents  an  acre,  and  the  privilege  was  otherwise 
restricted.  Even  this  was  too  much  for  Mr.  Buchanan,  and 
he  vetoed  and  thus  killed  the  bill.  A  homestead  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  for  the  actual  settler  was  one  of 
the  principal  objects  of  the  friends  of  freedom  during  all 
these  years,  and  until  it  was  finally  secured.  It  was  op- 
posed by  the  South,  its  Presidents,  and  its  pro-slavery 
friends  in  the  North  mainly  because,  as  was  expressly 
stated  in  the  Senate,  it  was  calculated  to  increase  the  num- 
ber of  free  States  and  was  unfavorable  to  the  extension  of 
slavery. 

Before  the  long  session  adjourned,  at  the  end  of  July, 
the  national  conventions  had  met,  declared  their  positions, 
and  placed  their  candidates  in  the  field.  The  Democratic 
Party  had  formally  divided,  the  North  nominating  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  on  the  principle  of  "  popular  sov- 
ereignty" in  the  Territories,  qualified  by  the  declaration 
that  "  all  rights  of  property  are  judicial  in  their  character, 
and  to  be  settled  by  the  courts  ;"  the  South  nominating 
John  C.  Breckenridge,  of  Kentucky,  on  the  principle  of  a 
Congressional  Slave  Code  for  the  Territories  whenever  it 
should  be  necessary  in  the  interest  of  slavery.  The  Know- 
Nothings,  their  oaths  and  secrecy  left  behind,  but  clinging 
to  their  "  Native"  doctrines,  nominated  John  Bell,  of  Ten- 
nessee, taking  neutral  ground  as  to  slavery.  The  Repub- 
licans nominated  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois,  reaffirm- 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  163 

ing  that  "  freedom  is  national,  slavery  sectional."  Slavery 
the  Republicans  denounced  as  morally  wrong.  Existing 
only  by  virtue  of  positive  local  law,  it  was  the  right  and 
duty  of  Congress  to  exclude  it  from  the  Territories,  and 
its  ultimate  extinction  should  be  anticipated.  The  friends 
of  Seward  were  grievously  disappointed  at  his  failure  to 
receive  the  nomination,  but  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  major- 
ity that  his  services  in  building  up  the  new  party  precluded 
it  from  bestowing  upon  him  its  highest  honors.  What  a 
grinning  irony  is  that  of  popular  politics  !  But  in  the 
nature  of  things,  the  Moses  who  leads  a  new  party  through 
the  wilderness  of  its  callow  years  to  the  border  of  the 
promised  land  of  power  may  not  enter  therein. 

The  Republican  Convention  of  the  Ninth  Congressional 
District  of  Indiana  met  on  the  i3th  day  of  June,  and  nom- 
inated the  sitting  Representative  for  the  Thirty-seventh 
Congress,  "  without  a  whisper  of  opposition  or  discontent, 
the  cheers  emphasizing  the  acclaim  making  the  leaves  of 
the  oaks  in  the  grounds  tremble  as  to  a  passing  breeze/ ' 
A  letter  was  read  from  the  absent  candidate,  in  which  he 
expressed  his  regret  at  his  inability  to  meet  with  them  as 
of  old,  and  congratulated  them  on  the  dawning  of  a  better 
day.  He  reviewed  the  work  of  the  House  during  the 
session — the  admission  of  Kansas  under  an  organic  law- 
adopted  by  her  people  forbidding  slavery,  and  thus  re- 
enacting  the  Proviso  of  Freedom  ;  the  passage  of  a  liberal 
homestead  bill  ;  the  readjustment  and  increase  of  the  tariff, 
so  as  to  yield  sufficient  revenue  for  current  expenditures, 
and  at  the  same  time  encourage  manufactures  ;  the  annul- 
ment of  the  peonage  and  slave  code  of  New  Mexico  ;  the 
prohibition  of  polygamy  in  the  Territories  ;  the  forbidding 
of  the  public  sale  of  the  public  lands  until  they  had  been 
ten  years  open  to  settlers  by  homestead  and  pre-emption. 
"Most  of  these  measures  were  rejected  by  the  Senate," 
said  he,  "  and  on  the  issues  involved  we  are  to  go  to  the 
country,  and  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  verdict." 

On  his  return  home  he  was  welcomed  more  enthusiasti- 
cally than  ever — taken  off  the  train  at  Mishawaka,  four 
miles  east,  and  after  an  interchange  of  compliments  es- 


164  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

corted  in  procession  with  music  to  South  Bend.  Uni- 
formed bands  of  "  Wide-awakes"  bearing  torch-lights  met 
the  procession  on  the  way,  turned  and  took  their  place  in 
it,  and,  with  hundreds  of  citizens,  accompanied  him  to  the 
Court  House.  Welcome  was  extended,  and  responding, 
he  gave  an  account  of  his  stewardship,  discussed  the  hap- 
less condition  of  the  divided  Democracy,  the  principles 
and  prospects  of  the  Republicans,  and  closed  with  a  glow- 
ing tribute  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  capacity  and  integrity. 

For  this  race  the  Democrats  nominated  the  Hon.  C.  W. 
Cathcart,  who  had  formerly  represented  the  district  in 
Congress.  Mr.  Colfax  invited  Mr.  Cathcart  to  the  cus- 
tomary joint  canvass.  Mr.  Cathcart  replied  that  he  was  in 
a  low  state  of  health,  and  not  equal  to  the  task.  The  nom- 
ination had  been  conferred  on  him  without  his  knowledge, 
he  said,  and  he  had  accepted  it  with  the  understanding 
that  he  would  not  canvass  the  district.  So  Mr.  Colfax 
went  around  the  course  alone,  speaking  in  seventy  towns. 
Not  a  line  of  these  speeches  is  on  record.  In  a  letter  to  an 
opposition  paper,  he  said  :  "  My  doctrine  now,  as  hereto- 
fore, is  :  '  No  interference  with  slavery  in  the  States  ;  no 
extension  of  slavery  beyond  their  limits.'  '  The  general 
canvass  of  the  Republicans  was  enthusiastic  to  the  last 
degree.  After  six  years  of  skirmishing,  with  varying  fort- 
unes, they  at  last  felt  that  a  decisive  action  was  on,  and 
that  victory  was  within  their  reach.  The  opposing  host 
was  divided  and  more  or  less  demoralized,  its  victories 
having  served  but  to  shatter  it. 

Colfax' s  canvass  lacked  the  stimulus  of  an  antagonist, 
but  it  was  none  the  less  a  triumphal  progress  from  town 
to  town,  calling  out  all  the  people.  One  township  gave 
him  its  total  vote — 128.  At  Miami  the  meeting  was  in  a 
grove  at  night,  the  scene  lighted  up  by  lanterns  and  camp- 
fires.  Describing  the  novel  theatre,  with  "  hundreds  of 
ladies  present  in  the  crowd,  '  which  no  man  might  num- 
ber,' "  the  Kokomo  Tribune  exclaimed  :  "  No  wonder  Colfax 
made  such  a  speech  !  A  better  one  never  was  made." 
"  We  have  heard  Mr.  Colfax  in  all  his  canvasses,"  said  the 
Peru  Republican  ;  "  but  in  none  has  he  acquitted  himself  so 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  165 

well."  He  carried  the  district  by  3500  majority  in  a  total 
poll  of  27,061. 

Appeals  for  his  assistance  came  from  adjoining  States 
— Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Ohio,  Illinois.  "  We  feel  like 
raising  the  Macedonian  cry,  '  Come  over  and  help  us/  for 
indeed  our  enemy  is  fighting  with  all  the  energy  of  de- 
spair." The  Hon.  N.  B.  Judd,  Chairman  of  the  Illinois 
State  Central  Committee,  writes  him,  iyth  September  : 
"  I  want  you  to  save  a  Senator  and  Representatives  for 
Trumbull  after  your  election  is  over.  1  know  your  work- 
ing capacity  and  willingness  to  do  good,  even  though  there 
may  not  be  much  glory  in  it.  Can  you  come,  and  for  how 
long,  and  when  ?"  Again  on  the  8th  of  October  :  "  If  you 
win  Indiana,  we  want  to  howl  at  our  wigwam  on  Thursday 
night,  and  we  desire  to  make  the  feature  of  the  occasion 
Lane,  Smith,  and  yourself.  I  sent  to  Lane  and  Smith  by 
Defrees,  and  now  you  will  come  I  know,  since  Indiana  is 
responsible  for  the  nomination  of  Lincoln."  Indiana  made 
the  nomination  good.  The  Hon.  Henry  L.  Dawes  wrote 
from  Massachusetts  :  "  All  hail  to  the  Star  of  the  West  ! 
All  hail  Indiana  and  her  peerless  workers  !  You  have  in- 
deed covered  yourselves  with  glory  in  Indiana.  But  what 
work  !  Who  could  start  a  canvass  with  ninety  inchoate 
speeches  all  aboard  ?  I  should  think  your  throat  must  be 
made  of  brass,  and  your  head  as  fertile  of  ideas  as  a  hop- 
vine  of  hops."  Mr.  M.  W.  Tappan  wrote  from  Bradford, 
N.  H.  :  "  God  bless  you  all  for  the  noble  victory  you 
achieved  in  Indiana.  The  question  is  settled,  and  now  let 
us  see  them  '  dissolve  the  Union  !  ' 

He  repaired  to  Illinois,  speaking  first  at  Alton.  "  Alton 
learned  one  thing  from  the  speech  of  Mr.  Colfax — what  en- 
thusiasm is,"  said  the  Alton  Courier.  "  We  have  had  cheers 
and  uproar  and  loud  demonstrations  of  applause — enthusi- 
asm we  have  not  had  in  this  canvass  till  last  evening — 
enthusiasm  that  lifted  men  into  a  nobler  atmosphere  than 
every-day  life  ;  that  made  old  men  young  again  ;  that  rose 
and  fell  and  rose  again  till  the  walls  of  our  magnificent 
hall  seemed  confining,  and  only  the  free  arch  above  large 
enough  for  the  free  hearts  of  the  people." 


1 66  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Mr.  Lincoln  carried  all  the  free  States,  giving  him  180 
electoral  votes.  The  other  candidates  together  had  more 
popular  votes  than  Lincoln,  but  only  127  electoral  votes 
between  them.  Lincoln,  although,  like  John  Quincy 
Adams  in  1824,  the  choice  of  a  minority  of  the  whole  peo- 
ple, was  constitutionally  elected  President.  At  the  same 
time,  he  was  without  qualification  elected  President,  and  it 
must  have  been  so  held  had  there  been  no  electoral  col- 
leges, no  Constitution  even,  because  he  received  a  plural- 
ity of  all  the  votes  ;  and  when  the  majority  divide,  a  plural- 
ity, being  the  largest  number  that  agree,  become  the 
majority,  and  can  maintain  their  right  to  rule,  as  they  did  in 
this  case,  against  all  comers,  the  right  to  rule  ultimately 
resolving  itself  into  the  power  to  rule.  A  majority  may 
lose  their  right  to  rule  by  carelessness  as  well  as  by  division. 
A  minority  united  and  inspired  by  an  idea  have  a  relative 
strength  which  may  be  very  disproportionate  to  the  num- 
ber of  their  polls.  Breckenridge  was  in  a  minority,  even 
in  the  South,  and  a  smaller  minority  than  voted  for  him 
carried  the  South  into  secession.  It  is  questionable  if  the 
Republican  Party,  which  wrought  a  revolution,  was  ever  a 
majority  of  the  people,  except  in  one  or  two  moments  of 
supreme  enthusiasm.  The  majority  should  rule,  if  they 
can,  and  because  they  can,  finally  ;  but  much  besides  mere 
numbers  goes  to  make  a  majority.  "  One  with  God  is  a 
majority." 

As  soon  as  the  result  of  the  election  became  known  the 
cotton  States  began  their  preparations  to  secede.  Mr. 
Buchanan's  Cabinet  Ministers  had  been  preparing  for 
secession  ever  since  the  defection  of  Douglas  defeated  the 
enslavement  of  Kansas  ;  had  been  distributing  arms  and 
munitions  of  war  in  the  South  where  they  could  be  easily 
seized  ;  had  been  scattering  the  naval  force  in  distant  seas, 
bankrupting  the  Treasury,  dismantling  the  defences  of  the 
country,  disabling  it  for  an  emergency.  South  Carolina 
having  led  the  way  about  the  middle  of  December,  State 
after  State  adopted  Ordinances  of  Secession,  and  withdrew 
from  the  Union.  Day  by  day  their  Senators  and  Represen- 
tatives took  their  departure  from  the  Capital,  some  with  a 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  167 

sense  of  the  gravity  of  the  step,  others  lightly  or  in  a  spirit 
of  bravado  and  defiance,  few,  if  any,  appearing  to  doubt 
that  the  American  Union  could  be  dissolved  like  a  lump  of 
sugar  in  a  glass  of  water. 

The  theory  that  the  Union  was  a  league  of  sovereign 
States,  from  which  any  State  could  rightfully  withdraw  at 
its  own  pleasure,  and  the  threat  to  exercise  this  alleged 
right  in  certain  contingencies,  were  as  old  as  the  Govern- 
ment. Those  who  at  length  so  lightly  undertook  to  exe- 
cute the  threat  had  inherited  the  theory,  and  did  not,  nor 
do  they  now,  regard  their  action  as  in  any  sense  treasonable 
or  rebellious.1  The  National  Executive  at  that  time  was 
practically  of  their  opinion.  The  party  holding,  on  the 
contrary,  that  the  Union  was  the  work  of  the  people,  and 
that  no  State  could  withdraw  from  the  Union  except  by 
consent  of  the  people — that  the  States  were  a  nation,  not  a 
mere  league — was  not  in  power.  It  was  on  the  threshold 
of  power,  however,  and  it  may  seem  strange  that  the  seces- 
sion leaders  were  permitted  to  depart  at  will  as  traitors. 
But  if  the  Republicans  could  have  caused  their  arrest  and 
detention,  and  had  done  so,  what  then  ?  Not  one  of  them 
could  have  been  convicted  of  treason,  not  one  of  them  was 
tried  for  treason,  even  after  four  years  of  armed  rebellion. 
If  they  had  been  arraigned,  no  jury  of  the  vicinage  would 
probably  have  returned  a  verdict  of  "  Guilty."  And  while 
they  were  withdrawing  from  the  Capital,  secession  purport- 
ed to  be  a  peaceable  remedy  for  alleged  grievances.  The 
hope  of  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  trouble  was  still  cher- 
ished. It  was  only  after  the  Southern  leaders  had  returned 
home  that  secession  became  spoliation  and  war.  Even 
then  prominent  Republicans  believed  that  the  storm  would 
soon  pass  over  and  a  satisfactory  basis  be  found  for  reunion 
and  peace.  They  had  no  conception  of  the  tremendous 
struggle  that  was  at  hand,  and,  in  any  event,  it  is  question- 
able if  they  could  have  done  aught  to  avert  or  postpone  it. 

1.  They  might  have  sought  the  disruption  of  the  Union  peaceably,  through  an 
amendment  to  the  Federal  Conetitution  providing  for  it,  or  through  a  direct  vote  of  the 
people  of  all  the  States  upon  the  question.  What  they  did  was  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
option  which  all  men  have  to  overthrow  their  governments,  and  if  successful  to  live  in 
peace  as  patriots  and  heroes  ;  if  defeated,  to  die  as  traitors  and  rebels. 


1 68  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

There  were  three  distinct  elements  in  both  Houses — the 
Northern,  firm  in  its  insistence  on  peaceful  submission  to 
the  constitutional  election  of  Lincoln  ;  the  Southern,  re- 
solved on  separation  from  the  North  at  all  hazards,  though 
little  dreaming  how  prodigious  were  the  hazards  ;  the 
Middle,  representing  a  mixed  Northern  and  Southern  con- 
stituency, inevitably  more  moderate  than  the  extremes, 
and  more  strongly  impelled  to  find  a  common  standing 
ground.  Great  pressure  came,  particularly  from  the  mid- 
dle belt  of  the  country,  for  another  compromise  with 
slavery,  and  it  was  an  exceedingly  critical  winter  for  free- 
dom— more  critical  than  freedom  had  ever  seen,  or  was 
ever  to  see  again.  Both  Houses  were  full  of  "  Union-sav- 
ing" schemes.  Possibly  the  North  would  have  sacrificed 
principle  to  some  extent  for  Union,  and  to  avoid  war  ;  but 
the  Southern  leaders  declined  any  terms,  even  though  left 
to  their  own  dictation.  They  had  long  been  infatuated 
with  the  dream  of  an  empire  founded  on  slavery.  The 
election  of  Lincoln  furnished  them  the  desired  pretext. 
They  entertained  no  doubt  of  their  ability  to  establish 
and  maintain  it,  and  even  to  extend  its  sway  over  the 
Northern  people,  if  they  should  presume  to  contest  its 
establishment.  In  a  word,  one  of  those  crises,  in  which 
Destiny  works  out  its  ends,  and  tendencies  carry  men  along 
with  the  irresistible  strength  of  a  torrent,  had  reached  its 
climax.  It  is  not  easy  to  see,  even  now,  what  better  the 
representatives  of  freedom  could  have  done  than  to  stand 
firm  and  wait,  as  they  did.  Left  to  its  own  devices,  seces- 
sion speedily  passed  into  actual  rebellion,  and  from  that 
moment  its  doom  was  certain.  Slavery  had  bred  in  the 
men  who  upheld  it  a  domineering  spirit,  which  involved  it 
and  them  and  its  progeny — secession,  treason,  and  rebel- 
lion— in  a  common  ruin. 

Under  pressure  of  the  grave  questions  forced  upon 
Congress  by  the  emergency,  Mr.  Colfax  attended  to  the 
business  of  his  committee,  looking  out  that  the  improve- 
ments and  reforms  initiated  at  the  long  session,  especially 
the  overland  mail  and  telegraph,  should  not  be  lost  be- 
tween the  two  Houses.  On  the  loth  of  December  he 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  169 

wrote  Mr.  Matthews  :  "  Your  views  and  mine  agree  ex- 
actly as  to  compromise,  except  that  I  wish  that  the  Per- 
sonal Liberty  bills  were  out  of  the  way,  and  had  never 
been  passed.  They  have  been  useless,  utterly — never  pre- 
vented a  single  fugitive  from  being  returned — and  weaken 
our  position  by  putting  us  in  the  attitude  of  quasi-nulli- 
fication." 

At  a  meeting  of  seventy-five  border  State  Congressmen 
on  the  28th  of  December,  Senator  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky, 
presiding,  Colfax  offered  the  following  proposition — name- 
ly, "  That  the  laws  of  the  Union  should  be  enforced  and  the 
Union  of  the  States  be  maintained  ;  and  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  Executive  to  protect  the  property  of  the  United 
States  with  all  the  power  placed  in  his  hands  by  the  Con- 
stitution." 

In  the  latter  part  of  January  he  introduced  a  bill  with- 
drawing or  suspending  the  postal  service  in  certain  South- 
ern States,  inasmuch  as  in  them  the  postal  laws  could  not 
be  enforced.  He  said  :  "  I  cannot,  for  one,  recognize  as 
true  what  has  been  held  in  regard  to  seceding  States  being 
out  of  the  Union.  The  bill  is  not  placed  upon  that  ground 
at  all.  If  the  United  States  courts  had  been  allowed  to 
remain  in  existence  in  the  seceding  States,  we  would  not 
have  felt  it  our  duty  to  report  this  bill."  Said  the  Wash- 
ington correspondence  of  the  New  York  Times  :  "  This  is 
the  best  and  almost  the  only  practical  move  which  has  yet 
been  made  for  checkmating  King  Cotton.  It  is  not  only 
the  right  thing  to  be  done,  it  is  placed  on  its  proper  foot- 
ing. Not  recognizing  secession,  but  simply  the  fact  that, 
under  existing  circumstances,  the  mails  cannot  be  pro- 
tected." 

Finding  it  to  be  the  general  desire,  he  consented  to 
postpone  consideration  of  the  bill,  had  it  re-committed, 
and  two  weeks  later  reported  it  again,  modified  so  as  to 
authorize  the  Postmaster-General  to  discontinue  the  ser- 
vice where  the  postal  laws  could  not  be  maintained,  report- 
ing his  action  to  Congress.  It  was  debated  in  the  morning 
hour,  and  coming  up  the  next  day,  he  said  :  "  Although  I 
have  a  speech  of  half  an  hour  which  I  would  like  to  de- 


170  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

liver,  yet  as  it  was  debated  yesterday  by  one  speech  in 
favor  and  one  against  the  proposition,  and  as  gentlemen 
are  desirous  that  it  shall  be  immediately  put  to  a  vote,  and 
inasmuch  as  I  myself  think  that  votes  are  better  speeches 
than  words,  I  shall  forego  the  explanatory  and  statistical 
speech  I  desired  to  make,  and  move  the  previous  question. 
If  the  House  desires  to  keep  on  debating  the  bill  for  a  week 
it  can  vote  down  the  previous  question."  The  bill  passed 
both  Houses  and  became  law. 

He  regarded  secession  as  treason.  That  the  Whigs  of 
the  Revolution,  the  founders  of  the  Republic,  lived  and 
labored  to  establish  a  nation  on  slavery,  white  or  black, 
or  bound  together  with  a  rope  of  sand,  his  mind  could  not 
take  in  at  all.  Between  the  imperial  and  the  popular  ten- 
dency existent  in  all  civilized  societies,  represented  in  the 
early  days,  the  former  by  Adams,  the  latter  by  Jefferson, 
and  in  later  times  by  the  second  Adams  and  Jackson  re- 
spectively, he  inclined  to  the  former  ;  but  the  issue  since 
he  entered  politics  and  now  was  not  between  the  high 
organization  of  the  Whigs  and  the  loose  organization  of 
the  Democrats,  but  between  freedom  and  slavery,  as  to 
which  the  fathers  were  all  ranged  together.  The  phase  of 
this  issue  now  presented  was  simply  whether  the  Govern- 
ment should  enforce  its  laws  and  maintain  the  integrity  of 
the  Union  or  not.  He  had  no  doubt  whatever  of  either 
the  natural  or  the  constitutional  right  of  the  nation  to 
maintain  its  authority  and  preserve  its  unity  at  all  hazards. 
At  the  same  time,  he  desired  to  do  this,  if  possible,  without 
war.  He  was  willing  to  go  to  the  extreme  verge  of  con- 
ciliation short  of  sacrificing  principle.  Speaking  of  this 
afterward,  as  editor  of  the  Register,  he  said  : 

"  They  organized  three  Territories  [Colorado,  Nevada,  Dakota]  with- 
out a  word  about  slavery  in  either  of  the  bills,  because  under  a  fair 
Administration,  which  would  not  use  its  armies  and  its  influence  for 
slavery,  and  with  governors  and  judges  who  were  not  hostile  to  free 
principles,  they  felt  willing  to  risk  the  issue  and  to  waive  a  positive  pro- 
hibition, which  would  have  only  inflamed  the  public  mind  and  thwarted 
the  organization  by  a  veto  from  Mr.  Buchanan.  To  answer  the  clamor 
about  Personal  Liberty  bills,  they  voted  for  a  resolution,  in  which  Repub- 
licans as  radical  as  Mr.  Lovejoy  joined,  recommending  the  repeal  of  such 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  I /I 

as  were  not  constitutional.  To  show  that  they  had  no  designs  on  slavery 
in  the  States,  as  was  so  falsely  charged  upon  them  by  their  enemies,  they 
voted  unanimously  that  Congress  had  no  right  or  power  to  interfere 
therein.  When  it  was  urged  that  possibly  but  seven  slave  States  might 
remain  in  the  Union,  and  that  the  North,  with  Pike's  Peak  [Colorado] 
and  Nebraska,  might  soon  number  twenty-one  free  States,  and  that  then, 
by  a  three-fourths  vote,  the  Constitution  might  legally  be  so  amended  as 
to  enable  them  to  exercise  that  power,  a  large  proportion  of  the  Repub- 
licans [68  for  to  64  against]  aided  in  proposing  to  the  States,  as  a  proffer 
of  peace,  a  constitutional  amendment,  declaring  that  under  all  circum- 
stances the  Constitution  shall  remain  on  that  question  exactly  as  it  came 
from  the  hands  of  Washington  and  Madison,  unchangeable  ;  thus  assur- 
ing to  the  border  States  absolute  protection  against  all  interference.  But 
when  demands  were  made,  in  the  shape  of  the  Crittenden  and  of  the 
Border  State  Compromise,  that  it  should  be  declared  that  in  all  Territories 
south  of  36°  30'  slavery  should  exist  and  [slaves]  be  protected  as  property, 
irrespective  of  and  even  in  opposition  to  the  public  will,  by  constitutional 
sanction,  which  should  also  be  irrepealable,  and  that  thus  the  Con- 
stitution should  absolutely  prohibit  the  people  of  the  Territories  in  question 
from  establishing  freedom,  even  if  they  unanimously  desired  it,  the  answer 
was  No  !  And  by  that  answer,  for  one,  we  are  willing  to  live  and  die." 

What  the  efforts  at  compromise  were,  what  concessions 
were  tendered  by  the  North,  and  why,  what  concessions 
were  demanded  by  the  South,  and  why  they  were  not 
granted,  may  be  seen  in  this  paragraph,  taken  from  a  long 
article  in  the  Register,  reviewing  the  entire  field,  published 
after  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress  had  expired  and  the  editor 
was  at  home  again. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  attitude  was  this  : 

"  I  will  suffer  death  before  I  will  consent,  or  advise  my  friends  to  con- 
sent, to  any  concession  or  compromise  that  looks  like  buying  the  privilege 
of  taking  possession  of  the  Government  to  which  we  have  a  constitutional 
right,  because,  whatever  I  might  think  of  the  various  propositions  before 
Congress,  I  should  regard  any  concession  in  the  face  of  menace  as  the 
destruction  of  the  Government  itself,  and  a  consent  on  all  hands  that  our 
system  shall  be  brought  down  to  a  level  with  the  existing  disorganized 
state  of  affairs  in  Mexico.  But  this  thing  will  hereafter  be,  as  it  is  now, 
in  the  hands  of  the  people  ;  and  if  they  desire  to  call  a  convention  to 
remove  any  grievances  complained  of,  or  to  give  new  guarantees  for  the 
permanence  of  vested  rights,  it  is  not  mine  to  oppose." 

The  Secessionists  had  established  a  reign  of  terror  at 
home,  for  secession  was  nowhere  popular  save  possibly  in 


172  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

South  Carolina.  Seeing  after  the  admission  of  free  Cali- 
fornia under  the  compromise  measures  of  1850  that  not 
another  slave  State  would  ever  be  admitted  into  the  Union, 
they  had  nominated  secession  candidates  in  the  South,  and 
been  ignominiously  beaten.  Now  they  overawed  opposi- 
tion by  violence,  and  thus  carried  the  day.  Followed  the 
seizure  of  forts,  of  arsenals,  dockyards,  and  Government 
vessels  on  the  Southern  coasts  and  in  Southern  waters  ;  of 
mints,  custom-houses,  hospitals,  and  public  buildings  in 
the  seceded  States  ;  the  firing  on  the  Star  of  the  West  in 
Charleston  Harbor  ;  the  organization  of  troops  and  of  a 
central  Government  at  Montgomery.  Of  all  the  forts  in 
those  regions,  Fort  Pickens  and  Fort  Sumter  alone  re- 
mained in  the  hands  of  the  Government  three  months 
after  Lincoln's  election.  It  beginning  to  appear  that  the 
felonious  work  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Cabinet  officers  was  to 
be  questioned,  they  resigned,  and  went  South.  The  Presi- 
dent may  have  been  helpless,  but  to  the  common  people 
his  attitude  was  that  of  an  imbecile  or  a  traitor.  His  new 
Cabinet  Ministers  were  already  establishing  a  different 
regime  when,  happily,  his  term  expired  and  Lincoln's 
began. 

The  work  of  the  session  was  a  tariff  act,  the  admission 
of  Kansas,  the  organization  of  Colorado,  Nevada,  and 
Dakota  as  Territories,  an  overland  telegraph  and  daily 
mail.  Bills  authorizing  the  President  to  call  out  volun- 
teers and  to  collect  the  customs  duties  on  shipboard  off 
the  seized  ports  failed. 

On  the  3ist  of  January  (1861)  Colfax  writes  his  mother  : 
"  The  excitement  here  is  intense,  but  whatever  the  result 
you  will  find  me  here  at  my  post  to  the  end. "  In  the 
same  letter  Mrs.  Colfax  writes  :  "  We  are  surrounded  by 
conspirators  and  traitors.  There  is  a  plot  to  seize  the 
Capital,  if  they  can  do  it  successfully.  Several  companies 
of  flying  artillery  have  been  ordered  here  by  General 
Scott,  and  stationed  in  different  parts  of  the  city,  and 
more  are  expected.  General  Scott  wishes  to  send  for  the 
Seventh  Regiment  of  New  York,  and  for  the  Maryland 
militia,  but  the  President,  who  is  more  than  'half  a  traitor, 


THIRTY-SIXTH   CONGRESS.  1/3 

and  cares  not  how  much  trouble  he  leaves  on  the  next 
Administration,  will  not  give  his  consent.  We  are  not 
personally  alarmed,  because  we  are  in  the  line  of  our  duty, 
and  that  is  the  safest  place." 

The  editor's  one  letter  of  this  winter  to  the  Register  rec- 
ommends the  choice  of  postmasters  in  his  district,  in  case 
of  a  scramble  by  an  election.  This  advice  was  generally 
adopted.  Still  he  was  half  crazed  by  the  rush  for  office. 
Three  months  before  Lincoln's  inauguration  he  wrote  : 
"  Letters  pour  in  by  the  hundreds — you  can  imagine  what 
for — not  from  Indiana  alone,  but  from  all  over.  Blank 
wants  to  be  postmaster  at  Blank,  although  it  is  a  town  of 
eight  thousand  inhabitants,  and  he  lives  ten  miles  out  in 
the  country  ;  says  he  must  have  it ;  and  so  on  all  through/' 
And  two  weeks  after  the  inauguration  he  writes  his 
mother  :  "  It  makes  me  heart-sick.  All  over  the  country 
our  party  are  by  the  ears,  fighting  over  offices  worth  one 
hundred  to  five  hundred  dollars.  My  district,  except  at 
La  Porte,  Michigan  City,  Valparaiso,  and  Logansport,  gets 
along  better,  but  it  is  awful  at  each  of  these  places.  And 
in  New  York  even,  had  I  the  power,  I  could  officer  the 
whole  Custom-House  from  my  own  correspondence."  This 
was  a  new  experience.1  Hitherto  his  candidates  for  Presi- 
dent had  been  beaten.  The  dispensing  of  office  seems  to 
be  the  bete  noir  of  popular  leaders.  Still,  the  dispenser  of 
office  has  much  the  best  of  the  seeker  for  office,  and  per- 
haps the  latter  is  the  more  deserving  of  sympathy.  It  may 
be  supposed,  at  all  events,  that  Mr.  Colfax  became  accus- 
tomed to  it  in  time,  and  that  it  ceased  to  worry  him. 

1.  Political  doctrinaires  had  not  then  discovered  a  way  in  which  the  Representatives 
of  the  people,  and  even  the  Chief  Executive,  might  shirk  a  very  important  part  of  their 
duties— namely,  by  referring  applicants  for  office  to  a  board  of  examiners. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS. 

1861-1863. 

LINCOLN  INAUGURATED. — COLFAX  GENERALLY  COMMENDED  FOR  POST- 
MASTER-GENERAL.— CIVIL  WAR,  SPECIAL  SESSION. — CHAIRMAN  OF 
COMMITTEE  ON  POST-OFFICES  AND  POST-ROADS. — His  STANDING 
IN  THIS  CONGRESS. — DEFENCE  OF  FREMONT. — FAVORS  CONFISCATION 
ACT. — REFORMS  IN  THE  POSTAL  SERVICE. — WAR  IN  EARNEST.— RE- 
NOMINATED,  RECRUITING,  CANVASS  AGAINST  TURPIE.  —  BARELY 
ELECTED,  CONGRATULATIONS. — DISCOURAGEMENT  IN  THE  COUNTRY. 
— FAVORS  THE  ADMISSION  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. — FIRE  IN  THE  REAR. — 
ANSWER  OF  CONGRESS. — CODIFICATION  OF  THE  POSTAL  LAWS. 

MUCH  against  his  inclination,  but  in  deference  to  well- 
founded  advice,  the  President-elect  passed  through  Balti- 
more en  route  to  the  National  Capital  in  the  night,  and 
partly  disguised.  He  was  inaugurated  without  mishap, 
Mr.  Douglas,  the  choice  of  one  third  of  the  people  for  Presi- 
dent, standing  at  his  side,  actually  holding  his  hat  during 
the  ceremony.  His  inaugural  address  prefigured  a  firm 
yet  patient  policy  ;  his  Cabinet  contained  all  his  competi- 
tors for  the  chief  magistracy,  presumably  the  strongest 
men  in  the  country. 

An  unusually  strong  and  widespread  demonstration 
had  been  made  in  favor  of  Mr.  Colfax  for  the  place  of  Post- 
master-General.1 He  was  commended  by  the  Legislatures 
and  Governors  of  nearly  every  Northern  and  Border 
State  ;  by  many  Congressional  delegations  and  Presi- 
dential Electors  ;  unanimously  by  the  publishers  of  the 

1.  It  had  been  canvassed  since  the  nominations.  "  I  see  you  talk  about  the  Post- 
master-Generalship," he  writes  his  mother  in  June,  1860.  "  Members  of  all  parties  talk 
about  it,  and  many  seem  to  regard  it  as  a  settled  thing  if  we  win.  I  do  not,  however.  It 
is  too  big  a  step  for  one  stride,  and  besides,  I  don't  know  Mr.  Lincoln  personally, 
although  we  correspond." 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  175 

great  Eastern  cities  ;  and  very  generally  by  the  press. 
Mr.  Lincoln  called  the  Hon.  Caleb  B.  Smith,  also  of  Indi- 
ana, into  his  Cabinet,  instead  of  Colfax.  Mr.  Smith  was 
an  old  Whig,  who  had  been  strongly  supported  for  Post- 
master-General twelve  years  previously,  when  President 
Taylor  was  inaugurated.  Failing  to  receive  the  appoint- 
ment, he  had  gone  out  of  politics  and  out  of  the  State,  and 
was  now  but  recently  returned.  He  and  Lincoln  had  been 
intimate  during  their  service  in  the  Twenty-ninth  Con- 
gress. He  was  at  the  Chicago  Convention,  seconded  Lin- 
coln's nomination,  and  used  his  influence  to  bring  Indiana 
to  the  support  of  Lincoln.  On  the  other  hand,  Colfax  had 
supported  Bates  against  Lincoln,  and  his  friend  Greeley 
had  helped  to  defeat  Lincoln  for  the  Illinois  Senatorship 
in  1858.  The  Republicans  had  carried  the  Legislature  of 
Indiana,  and  the  State  had  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate to  bestow  at  that  time,  for  which  Caleb  B.  Smith  and 
Henry  S.  Lane,  the  Governor-elect,  were  candidates.  If 
Smith  went  into  the  Cabinet  Lane  would  get  the  Senator- 
ship,  and  Lieutenant-Governor-elect  Morton  would  be 
Governor.  All  of  these  men,  inclusive  of  Smith,  were 
warm  friends  of  Colfax,  but  their  own  advancement  was 
paramount ;  and  so  Smith  had  strong  support  from  Colfax's 
own  State.  Mr.  Lincoln  subsequently  wrote  Colfax  as 
follows  :  "  I  had  partly  made  up  my  mind  in  favor  of  Mr. 
Smith,  not  conclusively  of  course,  before  your  name  was 
mentioned  in  that  connection.  When  you  were  brought 
forward,  I  said  :  '  Colfax  is  a  young  man,  is  already  in 
position,  is  running  a  brilliant  career,  and  is  sure  of  a 
bright  future  in  any  event.  With  Smith  it  is  now  or 
never.'  I  considered  either  abundantly  competent,  and 
decided  on  the  ground  I  have  stated." 

Major  Anderson,  left  to  his  own  discretion  in  Charles- 
ton Harbor  by  President  Buchanan,  had  evacuated  Fort 
Moultrie  as  untenable,  and  concentrated  his  small  force 
in  Fort  Sumter.  The  South  Carolina  rebels  protested, 
and  demanded  its  surrender,  and  Buchanan  had  been 
good  enough  to  treat  with  them  about  it.  It  was  now 
discovered  that  the  fort  was  but  slightly  provisioned,  and 


1/6  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

must  be  either  relieved  or  evacuated.  At  first  the  new 
Administration  was  inclined  to  choose  the  latter  alterna- 
tive ;  but  before  April  was  a  week  old,  for  some  reason, 
probably  popular  pressure,  the  wind  changed  ;  it  was  re- 
solved to  reinforce  Sumter,  and  word  to  that  effect  was 
sent  to  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina.  Secession  was 
hanging  fire  in  the  Border  States  ;  "  blood  had  to  be 
sprinkled  in  their  faces"  to  bring  them  to  the  mark  ;  so 
the  Confederate  Secretary  of  War  ordered  General  Beaure- 
gard  to  reduce  the  fort.  Major  Anderson  having  declined 
to  surrender  it,  fire  was  opened  on  the  fort  April  i2th, 
forcing  Anderson  to  capitulate  within  thirty-six  hours. 

On  the  1 5th  President  Lincoln  issued  a  proclamation 
calling  out  the  militia  of  the  several  States  to  the  number 
of  seventy-five  thousand  to  suppress  combinations  in  the 
Southern  States  against  the  laws,  and  summoning  both 
Houses  of  Congress  to  assemble  in  extraordinary  session 
on  the  4th  of  July.  We  had  not  at  that  moment  a  thou- 
sand soldiers  at  command  for  the  defence  of  Washington. 
We  could  neither  feed  nor  move  five  thousand  men.  We 
had  less  than  a  score  of  war  ships.  We  could  hardly  bor- 
row a  few  thousands  at  ten  or  twelve  per  cent.  Six  or  eight 
months  later,  notwithstanding  the  general  underrating  of 
the  meaning  of  the  crisis,  resulting  in  the  calling  of  one 
soldier  for  three  months  where  ten  should  have  been  called 
for  four  years — notwithstanding  the  exceeding  disappoint- 
ment and  the  bad  effect  of  the  field  of  Bull  Run,  we  had  six 
hundred  thousand  three-years'  men  in  the  ranks  ;  we  had 
arms,  munitions,  and  supplies  for  a  million  men  ;  we  had 
a  complete  commissariat  and  transportation  service  fora 
continental  war  ;  we  had  hundreds  of  war  ships,  were  block- 
ading two  thousand  miles  of  coast,  and  the  people  took  fifty 
millions  of  Government  seven  per  cent  stock  at  par  in  a 
single  day.  Such  was  the  effect  of  the  firing  on  Sumter. 

When  the  smoke  of  the  bombardment  lifted  it  showed 
Charleston  Harbor  under  blockade,  Fort  Pickens  rein- 
forced and  saved,  troops  enough  concentrated  to  render 
the  Capital  momentarily  safe,  and  regiments  of  militia 
en  route  to  Washington  from  half  the  Northern  States.  The 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  1 77 

first  company  from  Northern  Indiana,  Andrew  Ander- 
son, Jr.,  Captain,  left  South  Bend  for  the  rendezvous  at 
Indianapolis  on  the  i8th.  The  President  was  tendered 
forty  thousand  men  in  excess  of  his  call  ;  in  a  second  proc- 
lamation he  accepted  them  and  eighteen  thousand  sea- 
men. He  directed  the  increase  of  the  regular  army,  and 
proclaimed  the  Southern  coast  under  blockade.  The  gar- 
risons of  Forts  McHenry  and  Monroe  were  strengthened, 
the  Baltimore  mob  was  quelled,  Cairo  occupied  and  forti- 
fied, secession  at  St.  Louis  stamped  out,  and  the  Union 
sentiment  in  Kentucky  and  Maryland  encouraged  to  assert 
itself.  On  the  other  hand,  North  Carolina,  Arkansas,  and 
Eastern  Virginia  were  carried  over  to  the  Confederacy, 
with  little  if  any  regard  to  the  wishes  of  the  people  ;  the 
Confederate  capital  was  removed  from  Montgomery  to 
Richmond,  and  Southern  troops  were  concentrated  in  Vir- 
ginia. Western  Virginia  took  a  decided  stand  against 
secession,  and  the  rebel  forces  in  that  quarter  were  soon 
flying  before  the  Indiana  and  Ohio  Volunteers. 

Mr.  Colfax  was  on  the  wing  during  these  weeks — to  St. 
Joseph,  Mo.,  as  the  guest  of  the  city,  and  on  confidential 
missions  for  the.  Government  in  many  of  the  States  and  in 
Canada.  The  volunteers  of  the  different  States  were  anx- 
ious not  to  be  outdone  by  one  another  ;  and  when  Colfax 
procured  immediate  marching  orders  for  three  regiments 
of  Indiana  Volunteers,  and  secured  permission  for  these 
three-months'  men  to  serve  through  the  war,  it  was  es- 
teemed the  highest  service  he  could  render  them.  He  got 
them  Minie  rifles  instead  of  the  muskets  first  distributed, 
and  having  done  all  he  could  for  them,  he  says  in  his 
paper  :  "  Thousands  of  anxious  hearts  will  follow  them, 
rejoicing  in  their  successes  and  mourning  over  their  losses, 
and  none  with  deeper  interest  than  the  writer,  who  hap- 
pens to  know,  personally,  more  of  them  than  any  other 
one  they  leave  behind."  He  followed  them,  and  regiment 
after  regiment  that  left  his  district  and  the  State  after- 
ward, with  a  solicitude  changing  more  and  more  into  pain 
as  they  came  not  back,  harder  to  bear  than  it  would  have 
been  to  go  with  them  and  share  their  fortunes. 


178  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

His  place  was  in  Congress,  not  in  the  field.  Mankind 
pay  their  highest  tribute  to  the  successful  soldier,  not  per- 
haps without  reason.  Yet  it  would  seem  that  in  a  free 
country,  where  the  people  can  give  or  withhold  as  they 
please,  it  is  easier  to  destroy  than  to  create  armies  ;  that 
higher  powers  are  needed  for  the  latter  than  for  the  former. 
With  the  people  all  of  one  mind,  as  they  were  at  first,  the 
task  was  organization  and  administration  only.  But  as 
the  strain  was  prolonged  and  increased,  as  the  prospect 
darkened  and  hope  grew  faint,  as  the  natural  selfishness  of 
men  and  of  parties  materialized,  the  task  became  complex 
and  difficult.  It  afforded,  indeed,  ample  field  for  the 
utmost  powers  of  the  popular  leader.  The  people  had  to 
be  convinced  that  they  ought  to  loan  the  Government 
thousands  of  millions  of  dollars  ;  that  they  ought  to  vote 
unprecedented  taxes  ;  that  they  must  enroll  themselves  in 
mass  for  conscription  ;  subject  themselves  to  martial  law 
— in  a  word,  make  the  sacrifices  necessary  to  prosecute  a 
vast  war  against  a  determined  foe  to  a  successful  issue. 
The  statesmen  of  those  times  were  as  capable  and  as  heroic 
as  the  soldiers,  and  their  work,  though  less  showy,  was 
equally  important. 

Before  the  convening  of  Congress  in  special  session, 
July  4th,  many  prominent  people  and  newspapers  had  men- 
tioned Mr.  Colfax  in  connection  with  the  Speakership  of 
the  House.  While  he  was  on  the  way  East  his  paper  an- 
nounced that  he  was  not  a  candidate,  and  he  made  a  sim- 
ilar announcement  on  the  floor  of  the  House  previous  to 
the  first  ballot  for  Speaker.  Galusha  A.  Grow,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, was  elected  Speaker  on  the  second  ballot.  The  Re- 
publicans had  control  of  both  Houses,  106  to  72  in  the 
House,  31  to  17  in  the  Senate,  with  an  additional  28  in  the 
House  and  5  in  the  Senate,  who,  although  not  Republicans, 
were  supporters  of  the  Union  cause.  Congress  was,  in  fact, 
all  but  unanimous.  Thaddeus  Stevens  was  appointed  Chair- 
man of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee,  Colfax  was  given 
his  old  place  at  the  head  of  the  Committee  on  Post-Offices 
and  Post-Roads. 

President    Lincoln's  message  recited  the  precipitation 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  179 

of  war  by  the  South,  and  maintained  that  the  President 
could  not  decline  to  accept  the  issue  thus  presented.  Not 
only  was  the  existence  of  the  Union  at  stake,  but  the  ex- 
istence of  popular  government.  He  asked  Congress  to 
give  him  the  authority  and  the  means  to  make  the  contest 
short  and  decisive.  Congress  approved  all  his  acts  to  date, 
authorized  him  to  call  into  service  for  three  years  or  during 
the  war  half  a  million  volunteers,  to  increase  the  regular 
army  and  enlarge  the  navy.  It  appropriated  two  hundred 
and  fifty  millions  for  the  military  and  naval  service,  pro- 
vided for  the  collection  of  the  customs  duties  of  the  insur- 
rectionary States  on  shipboard,  and  authorized  a  loan  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  on  Treasury  stock.  It 
passed  a  tax  bill  imposing  an  income  tax,  a  direct  tax  of 
twenty  millions,  and  increasing  the  number  and  rate  of 
tariff  duties.  At  the  same  time  Congress  adopted  with  but 
two  dissenting  votes  the  Crittenden  Resolution,  declaring 
that  the  present  deplorable  Civil  War  is  waged  only  "  to 
defend  and  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution, 
and  to  preserve  the  Union  with  all  the  dignity  and  rights 
of  the  several  States  unimpaired  ;  and  that  as  soon  as  these 
objects  are  accomplished,  the  war  ought  to  cease."  A  bill 
was  passed,  purely  as  a  war  measure,  freeing  slaves  em- 
ployed in  the  rebel  military  or  naval  service,  and  declar- 
ing property  used  for  insurrectionary  purposes  lawful 
prize. 

Mr.  Colfax  brought  in  a  bill,  which  became  law,  pro- 
viding that  soldiers'  letters  should  be  carried  by  the  post 
without  prepayment  of  postage,  the  recipient  paying  the 
postage — a  facility  extended  to  the  naval  service  at  the 
regular  session.  He  opposed  the  levying  of  a  direct  tax, 
believing  that  it  would  bear  unequally  and  be  very  unpop- 
ular. He  offered  an  amendment  in  Committee  of  the 
Whole,  striking  out  of  the  tax  bill  the  djrect  tax  of  thirty 
millions,  and  filling  its  place  with  a  tax  on  stocks,  bonds, 
mortgages,  and  incomes.  Defeated  in  committee,  he  sub- 
sequently offered  a  resolution  in  the  House,  instructing  the 
Ways  and  Means  Committee  to  strike  out  the  direct  tax, 
now  reduced  to  twenty  millions,  and  instead  thereof  to 


180  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

call  in  the  surplus  revenue  distributed  to  the  States  in  1836, 
on  the  stipulation  that  it  should  be  returned  when  wanted  ; 
to  modify  the  tariff  by  reducing  the  free  list,  increasing 
such  duties  as  would  bear  increase,  and  decreasing  pro- 
hibitory duties.  Striking  out  the  direct  tax  was  not  agreed 
to,  but  the  event  proved  him  right.  Very  little  was  real- 
ized from  it,  and  it  was  soon  abandoned. 

On  the  i8th  of  July  he  writes  home  :  "  For  the  first 
time  in  the  seven- sessions  I  have  been  here  I  was  absent 
from  my  seat  yesterday  while  the  House  was  legislating. 
There  was  no  important  measure  likely  to  be  voted  on,  and 
I  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  witness  the  advance 
on  Fairfax  Court  House."  War  was  new  to  him,  he 
wanted  to  know  as  much  as  he  could  about  it,  so  he  put  in 
sixteen  hours  of  a  July  day,  afoot  and  on  horseback,  to  see 
an  army  on  the  march.  Charged  with  having  been  in  the 
panic  flight  from  Bull  Run,  he  said  he  was  not  there,  but 
he  would  have  been,  had  he  known  or  thought  of  the  good 
he  might  have  done  in  assisting  the  wounded  to  hospital, 
and  otherwise.  The  extra  session  closed  on  the  6th  of 
August. 

He  spent  the  autumn  in  editorial  work,  and  in  talk- 
ing at  war  meetings  and  rendezvous  camps.  His  former 
competitors  for  Congress,  Messrs.  Fitch  and  Eddy,  had  his 
heartiest  assistance  in  raising  each  a  regiment  in  his  dis- 
trict. By  the  end  of  September  Indiana  had  filled  her 
quota  of  the  first  half  million,  and  he  called  for  conscrip- 
tion to  even  up,  so  that  Indiana  might  go  on  and  raise  her 
part  of  a  second  half  million.  Recruiting  went  on  without 
cessation. 

About  the  20th  of  September  he  visited  his  old  friend 
Fremont,  then  in  command  of  the  Western  Department  at 
St.  Louis.  Generals  Sigel  and  Lyon  had  failed  to  stay  the 
advance  of  the  Confederate  General  Price,  Lyon  had  been 
killed  at  Wilson's  Creek,  and  Colonel  Mulligan  forced  to 
surrender  at  Lexington,  with  twenty-seven  hundred  men. 
General  Fremont  was  held  responsible  in  many  quarters 
for  not  supporting  Lyon  and  for  not  relieving  Mulligan. 
He  was  charged  with  having  surrounded  himself  with  a 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  l8l 

scoundrelly  lot  of  adventurers,  with  waste,  and  even  with 
corruption  ;  with  constructing  useless  gunboats  ;  laying 
out  and  commencing  a  system  of  fortifications  for  St. 
Louis  ;  and  with  much  else.  On  the  3ist  of  August  he 
issued  a  proclamation,  declaring  the  lives  and  property  of 
men  found  in  arms  within  his  lines  forfeited  and  their 
slaves  free.  This  act  was  enthusiastically  approved  by  the 
radical  element  of  the  Union  party,  but  President  Lincoln 
annulled  it,  because,  as  he  afterward  said,  he  "did  «not 
[then]  deem  military  emancipation  an  indispensable  neces- 
sity." Frank  Blair  was  dictator  in  Missouri  until  Fremont 
went  there.  He  and  Fremont  failed  to  agree,  and  Blair 
had  sufficient  influence  to  have  Fremont  superseded  by 
General  Hunter  about  the  ist  of  November. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  canvass  the  merits  or  demerits 
of  John  C.  Fremont  as  a  soldier,  or  otherwise  ;  but  it  may 
be  remarked  that  for  the  most  part  of  his  command  of  four 
months  in  Missouri  he  was  without  men,  without  arms, 
without  money,  and  without  transportation  ;  that  in  spite 
of  this  he  organized  an  army,  took  the  field,  drove  the 
enemy  back  toward  Arkansas,  and  was  on  the  eve  of  the 
delivery  of  a  decisive  battle — the  same  won  by  Generals 
Curtis  and  Sigel  at  Pea  Ridge,  the  next  March — when  he 
was  relieved.  But  for  his  much-ridiculed  gunboats,  co- 
operating with  General  Grant,  under  Admiral  Porter,  the 
Tennessee,  the  Cumberland,  and  the  Mississippi  could 
never  have  been  cleared.  A  year  later  the  Administration 
was  forced  to  resort  to  military  emancipation,  or  lose  the 
cause  and  the  country. 

The  military  operations  of  the  season,  culminating  in 
the  Union  disaster  of  Bull  Run,1  were  about  a  stand-off. 
If  Washington  was  safe  when  Congress  met  in  December, 
so  was  Richmond.  But  the  political  effect  of  operations 


1.  A  Washington  correspondent  of  the  Cincinnati  Enquirer  says  that  Senator  Chand- 
•,  of  Michigan,  called  on  the  President  after  this  battle,  and  found  him  weeping  and 
wringing  his  hands.    "  My  God  1   Chandler,  I'm  glad  to  see  you.    Oh,  we  are  ruined, 


ler,  of  Michigan,  called  on  the  President  after  this  battle,  and  found  him  weeping  and         ^    •) 

1,  j 
ruined!    What  shall  be  done  ?"    "  Done,  Mr.  President,  done  ?    Write  out  your  proc-  /       * 


lamation,  calling  for  three  hundred  thousand  men  at  once."  After  some  hesitation, 
which  was  finally  overcome  by  Chandler's  urgency,  Lincoln  did  so,  and  Chandler  car- 
ried it  off  to  be  telegraphed  to  the  Associated  Press.  Its  publication  reassured  the 
people.  Lincoln  had  strong  hearts  around  him. 


182  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

in  the  field  on  North  and  South  respectively  was  by  no 
means  a  stand-off.  On  the  contrary,  the  2ist  of  July  sub- 
stantially reversed  the  relative  strength  of  the  parties  to 
the  war.  In  April  Disunion  was  favored  only  by  a  decided 
minority  in  the  South.  December  saw  the  whole  South 
arrayed  for  Disunion.  In  April  the  general  enthusiasm 
in  the  North  swept  all  along  together.  In  December  di- 
vision of  the  North,  on  the  old  political  line,  was  become 
quite  marked.  So  that  in  December,  roughly  speaking, 
instead  of  the  whole  North  and  half  the  South  maintain- 
ing the  Union  against  half  the  South,  as  in  April,  it  was 
half  the  North  maintaining  the  Union  against  the  whole 
South  and  nearly  half  of  the  North.  True,  many  Demo- 
crats supported  the  war,  and  but  for  them  the  Union  could 
not  have  been  preserved  ;  but  as  an  organization  the  Dem- 
ocratic Party  henceforth  opposed  the  war,  and  did  what- 
ever it  could  and  dared  to  embarrass  and  obstruct  it. 

The  member  from  the  Ninth  District  of  Indiana  was  a 
conspicuous  figure  in  this  Congress,  which  had  more  and 
graver  responsibilities  to  meet  than  any  Congress  in  our 
history.  An  observer  wrote  to  the  Indiana  State  Journal : 
"  He  is  as  much  the  master  spirit  of  the  House  as  Thad- 
deus  Stevens,  because  over  all,  regardless  of  party,  he 
wields  a  wider  and  deeper  influence,  while  in  debate  he 
stands  among  the  invincible  on  the  floor.  He  is  the  most 
remarkable  man  in  Congress." 

On  his  birthday  (March  23d)  his  mother  wrote  him  : 

"  Many  happy  returns  of  this  New  Year's  day  to  you,  my  dear  son,  and 
may  every  one  find  you  happier,  both  in  your  temporal  and  spiritual  life. 
.  .  .  Dear  Schuyler,  how  I  have  enjoyed  reading  your  defence  of  your 
friend  Fremont  !  It  is  a  noble  speech,  and  well  might  the  Squire  write,  as 
he  did,  in  raptures  about  it.  He  always  was  proud  of  you,  but  this  winter 
it  appears  as  if  he  cannot  say  enough  of  the  influence  you  have  and  the 
respect  paid  you.  What  a  gratification  it  would  be  to  me  to  hear  you 
speak  once  in  that  House  !  And  how  nobly  you  did  defend  Fremont  !"  * 

1.  Mr.  Matthews  writes  Mrs.  Matthews  on  various  dates  between  November  30th, 
1861,  and  March  8th,  1862  : 

"  It  is  supposed  there  will  be  some  sharp  times  here  about  Fremont;  some  members 
say  they  will  denounce  the  Cabinet  and  the  President  from  their  places.  Although  Mr. 
Lincoln  has  denied  himself  to  everybody,  he  sent  for  Schuyler  last  night,  and  was  closeted 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  183 

The  Hon.  Francis  P.  Blair  was  at  the  height  of  his  fame. 
He  and  General  Lyon  had  .saved  Missouri.  His  brother 
was  Postmaster-General,  he  himself  had  received  forty 
votes  for  Speaker  on  the  organization  of  this  House.  To 
his  savage  attack  on  General  Fremont  in  the  House,  Mr. 
Colfax  replied  in  the  same  place,  demonstrating  from  offi- 
cial documents  that  under  the  most  incredible  difficulties 
and  embarrassments  Fremont  had  made  a  record  in  Mis- 
souri of  which  any  general  might  be  proud.  The  speech 
was  a  hit,  the  radical  Republicans  responding  to  it  most 
heartily.  The  New  York  Tribune  pronounced  it  "  impreg- 
nable." He  received  scores  of  letters  of  congratulation 
and  thanks.  A  conductor  on  the  Brooklyn  Street  Rail- 
way said  to  Mr.  Henry  A.  Bowen  : 

"  Have  you  read  Colfax's  speech  ?" 

"  Yes  ;   what  do  you  think  of  it  ?" 

"  Well,  I  think  Fremont  a  great  rascal,  and  I  do  not 
believe  he  can  be  vindicated,  and  I  do  not  think  Colfax 
really  did  it  ;  but,  my  God,  what  an  effort  !  Old  Blair 
was  completely  used  up." 

with  him  for  several  hours.  Schuyler  says  it  will  all  be  fixed  satisfactorily,  and  I  hope 
it  may  be/' 

"  Schuyler  made  a  speech  yesterday  on  the  death  of  Mason.  It  was  the  only  speech 
listened  to  ;  the  House  was  still  as  death  ;  but  when  the  others  spoke  and  read  their 
speeches,  members  were  running  about  in  every  direction,  and  talking.  I  felt  that  we 
had  no  right  to  be  ashamed  of  our  boy.  He  is  getting  large  and  stout ;  I  never  saw  him 
looking  so  well." 

"  It  does  look  as  though  Schuyler  had  more  influence  than  almost  any  other  person  in 
the  House.  He  is  so  truthful,  and  has  such  a  pleasant,  easy  way  of  getting  along,  that  he 
seems  to  be  able  to  do  what  no  other  person  can.  I  notice  he  always  has  a  lot  hanging 
around,  advising  and  getting  instructions,  and  when  he  undertakes  to  cross  the  chamber 
he  will  be  stopped  twenty  times  to  answer  some  question  or  to  chat  about  something. 
Nobody  seems  to  get  out  of  patience  with  him,  and  everybody  has  a  smile  for  him  and  a 
kind  greeting.  Without  partiality  and  without  question,  he  is  the  ablest  man  in  the 
House.  I  used  to  look  upon  some  men— off  at  a  distance— as  being  ahead  of  him  for 
statesmanship,  etc.,  but  they  don't  begin  to  have  the  influence  in  the  House  that  he  does. 
He  seldom  speaks,  but  when  he  does  everybody  listens,  for  they  understand  there  is 
something  to  be  done,  and  he  uses  no  more  words  than  necessary.  Members  know  that 
he  doesn't  talk  for  the  sake  of  talking." 

"  Yesterday  Schuyler  made  a  magnificent  speech  in  the  House  in  defence  of  Fremont. 
Blair  spoke,  and  it  came  on  the  House  unexpectedly.  It  was  unprepared,  and  was  a 
magnificent  burst  of  eloquence.  I  don't  think  I  ever  heard  him  make  a  more  happy 
effort.  He  spoke  an  hour  and  fifteen  minutes,  and  as  soon  as  he  had  finished  the  House 
adjourned.  Members  went  up  to  him  from  all  quarters  and  complimented  him  ;  the 
galleries  came  down  and  shook  hands  with  him — a  great  number  of  them.  The  speech 
was  very  highly  praised  by  those  even  who  are  enemies  of  Fremont.  Schuyler  may  well 
be  proud  of  his  position  in  Congress." 


1 84  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

A  gentleman  wrote  him  from  La  Porte,  Ind.  :  "  You 
have  won  the  lasting  gratitude  of  thousands  by  your  de- 
fence of  Fremont,  and  those  who  don't  believe  you  have 
entirely  vindicated  him  honor  your  manliness  in  espousing 
your  friend's  cause  when  it  was  at  the  darkest."  A  few- 
days  after  the  speech  Fremont  was  appointed  to  a  new- 
command,  in  Western  Virginia,  but  he  was  dissatisfied  with 
the  treatment  accorded  him,  and  soon  retired  from  active 
service.  He  was  the  favorite  of  the  "  Radicals,"  and  radi- 
calism was  not  yet  in  vogue  with  either  the  Administration 
or  General  Halleck,  the  Chief  Commander  of  the  army. 

January  3d,  1862,  Mr.  Matthews  writes  home  : 

"  Last  night  Horace  Grceley  lectured  at  the  Smithsonian  Institute. 
The  President,  Mr.  Chase,  Seward,  Speaker  Grow,  and  other  distin- 
guished people  were  on  the  stand.  Greeley  made  a  fine  address,  and  was 
loudly  cheered.  During  the  evening  he  spoke  of  the  demand  of  the  peo- 
ple for  the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  the  rebels,  slaves  included,  and 
alluded  to  the  Fremont  doctrine  as  being  a  little  in  advance  of  the  law  of 
Congress,  but  not  of  the  public  demand.  No  sooner  had  the  name  of 
Fremont  escaped  his  lips  than  a  tremendous  cheer  broke  out  from  the 
whole  house.  It  was  vociferous  and  prolonged  for  more  than  a  minute. 
They  stamped,  clapped  their  hands,  pounded  with  their  canes,  and  yelled 
tremendously.  It  was  a  surprise  to  Old  Abe,  for  he  turned  quite  pale  and 
sunk  down  in  his  chair,  as  much  as  to  say  :  '  Let  me  get  out  of  here.'  ' 

The  new  year  (1862)  opened  with  the  victories  of  Grant 
at  Donelson  and  Shiloh,  and  the  defeat  of  Price  at  Pea 
Ridge,  followed  by  the  fall  of  New  Orleans,  of  Norfolk,  of 
Pulaski,  of  Memphis,  the  evacuation  of  Corinth,  the  occu- 
pation of  Chattanooga,  and  the  six  days'  retreat  from  be- 
fore Richmond.1  Washington  was  filled  with  the  sick  and 
wounded,  and  thousands  had  to  be  sent  to  the  more  North- 
ern cities.  "  You  may  theorize  about  war  and  its  woes," 
Colfax  writes  to  his  paper  ;  "  you  may  imagine  that  you 

1.  On  the  fall  of  Doneleon  Colfax  announced  it  in  the  House.  The  scene  that  ensued 
defied  description.  Even  the  reporters,  orderly  among  the  disorderly,  echoed  the  cheers 
that  rose  from  floor  and  galleries.  "  The  thick  veil  that  has  hidden  the  rebel  States  from 
our  eyes  suddenly  drops,11  writes  Colfax.  "Army  after  army  surrenders,  and  the  people 
welcome  the  old  flag  with  all  the  old  affection.1'  Everybody  believed  the  rebellion  to  be 
tottering  to  its  fall,  but  not  yet  for  many  long,  weary  months.  The  Avenger  had  ap- 
peared, but  his  work  was  still  to  do.  Donelson  was  the  first  sign-manual  of  Grant,  but 
no  eye  pierced  to  his  last  at  Appomattox,  and  scanned  the  acres  and  acres  of  graves 
between. 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  185 

know  from  overlooking  a  battle-field  what  is  its  cost ;  but 
till  you  go  through  the  wards  of  an  army  hospital  you  can- 
not realize  the  sad  havoc  of  shot  and  shell."  Everybody 
vied  with  everybody  in  attentions  to  the  stricken.  The 
wives  and  daughters  of  Congressmen  and  Cabinet  officers 
became  hospital  nurses.  Under  this  experience  Congress 
and  the  people  began  to  see  some  things  in  a  new  light. 

Early  in  the  session  Mr.  Colfax  had  written  to  the 
Register  that  "  slavery  is  at  last  conceded  to  be  a  positive 
element  of  strength  to  the  rebellion,  and  the  Republicans 
in  caucus  have  agreed  to  strip  the  rebels  of  their  slaves  and 
all  their  property."  The  substance  of  the  Crittenden  Reso- 
lution of  the  extra  session  was  introduced  again  ;  Mr.  Col- 
fax  voted  that  it  lie  on  the  table,  and  when  criticised  for 
his  vote,  replied  that  "  once  making  that  apology  was 
enough  ;  and  furthermore,  I  do  not  regard  the  confiscation 
of  everything  a  traitor  owns  or  claims — horses,  lands, 
slaves,  goods,  money,  life,  and  all — as  in  conflict  with  that 
resolution,  and  I  intend  to  vote  for  a  bill  of  that  character  if 
wisely  framed."  This  declaration  fairly  represented  the  sen- 
timent of  the  Republicans,  and  illustrates  the  nature  and 
extent  of  the  effect  of  events  during  the  first  year  of  the  war. 

The  President  was  intent  on  compensated  emancipa- 
tion, in  co-operation  with  the  Border  slave  States.  He 
was  opposed  to  confiscation,  except  in  a  comparatively 
harmless  form.  "It  is  whispered  around  here  that  the 
President  will  veto  the  House  confiscation  bills  if  they 
pass  the  Senate,"  a  Chicago  friend  writes  Mr.  Colfax. 
"  If  he  does,  our  party  will  explode,  the  biggest  and  best 
end  of  it  repudiating  him  as  a  pro-slavery  man."  But 
soon  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh  the  President  approved  an 
act  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  ;  and 
during  the  fighting  before  Richmond,  he  approved  an  act 
forever  excluding  slavery  from  the  Territories,  present  and 
prospective.  A  new  article  of  war  was  adopted,  dismiss- 
ing from  the  service  any  officer  who  should  thereafter  act 
as  a  slave-catcher.  The  two  Houses  were  perfecting  a  bill 
to  raise  a  million  dollars  a  day  by  taxation  ;  also  a  bill  to 
confiscate  the  property  of  certain  classes  of  rebels,  and  to 


186  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

free  the  slaves  of  all  who  should  not  return  to  their  alle- 
giance upon  sixty  days'  warning. 

On  confidential  terms  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  Colfax  was  the 
medium  through  whom  Mr.  Greeley  and  other  editors  and 
leaders  communicated  with  the  President.  After  the  fail- 
ure of  the  Peninsular  campaign  Mr.  Medill  writes  him  : 
"  The  Union  is  in  awful  peril.  We  have  fought  for  '  Union 
and  slavery  '  for  sixteen  months.  The  crisis  has  come 
at  last.  One  or  the  other  must  be  given  up,  both  can- 
not endure.  We  as  a  nation  have  rowed  against  Niag- 
ara's stream,  but  have  drifted  steadily  toward  the  chasm, 
and  the  roar  of  the  cataract  can  be  heard  by  all  but  the 
wilfully  deaf.  The  Governors  have  petitioned  the  Presi- 
dent, and  he  has  consented  to  receive  three  hundred  thou- 
sand more  volunteers.  But  they  will  not  come.  Tell  the 
President  he  must  call  louder.  He  must  either  touch  the 
popular  heart  by  calling  on  men  to  fight  for  '  Union  and 
Liberty,'  or  he  must  resort  to  conscription,  and  draft  his 
recruits.  Tell  him  not  to  be  deceived.  He  needs  these 
recruits  now.  If  he  adopts  the  former  policy,  a  million 
men  will  obey  the  summons.  But  he  must  give  us  free- 
dom-loving generals  to  lead  them." 

Mr.  Greeley  writes  him  on  the  2oth  of  March  :  "  When 
you  see  Old  Abe  I  wish  you  would  try  to  ascertain  just 
how  and  why  McClellan  is  continued  in  command  on 
the  Potomac.  I  have  made  many  fresh  enemies  by  urging 
his  removal,  when  I  understood  the  publication  of  the 
President's  '  war  orders  '  gave  notice  that  he  must  go.  If 
their  publication  did  not  mean  that,  what  did  it  mean  ? 
Why  that  order  of  the  27th  of  January  to  move  on  the  22d 
of  February  should  have  been  published,  unless  to  lay  on 
McClellan  the  righteous  blame  of  having  let  the  rebels 
escape,  is  to  me  utterly  incomprehensible."  l 

1.  Mr.  Greeley  writes  him  in  January,  1862 :  "  As  to  going  into  the  Cabinet,  that  de- 
pends on  who  are  to  be  your  associates.  If  it  is  to  be  a  strong,  energetic,  driving,  fight- 
ing Cabinet,  go  in  !  If  not,  stay  out !  I  still  believe  the  war  can  be  finished  in  three  cal- 
endar months,  if  it  is  in  the  hands  of  men  who  mean  something  ;  and  if  it  is  not,  it  can- 
not be  closed  too  soon.  I  protest  against  the  appropriation  of  a  dollar  for  war  purposes 
for  the  next  fiscal  year.  If  the  rebels  are  not  whipped  by  June,  they  never  will  be  ;  and 
I  will  justify  the  European  Powers  in  demanding  as  well  as  extending  a  recognition  of 
their  independence.  And  this  Congress  must  never  adjourn  until  this  matter  is  settled." 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  l8/ 

Again,  November  i6th  :  "  Since  the  President  has 
shown  a  disposition  to  go  straight  ahead,  so  fast  and  so  far 
as  circumstances  will  warrant,  I  want  to  do  all  I  can  to 
strengthen  him  with  the  country.  If,  then,  he  should  de- 
sire the  public  to  be  enlightened  in  any  particular  direc- 
tion, or  wish  Congress  not  to  be  pressed  in  favor  of  confis- 
cation, or  any  other  measure,  I  will  endeavor,  so  far  as  I 
can,  to  defer  to  his  judgment.  I  write  this  to  you  that  you 
may  speak  of  it  to  him  if  you  think  best,  and  he  may  indi- 
cate through  you,  or  any  one  else,  such  considerations  as 
he  would  wish  to  have  presented  to  the  public." 

The  military  successes  turned  to  Dead-Sea  apples  as  the 
months  passed.  Bragg  was  able  to  threaten  Louisville  in 
the  autumn,  and  Lee  invaded  Maryland.  It  was  a  terrible 
year  for  the  Union  cause,  closing  with  the  vain  sacrifice  of 
thousands  at  Fredericksburg.  With  unbounded  devotion 
on  the  part  of  the  people,  there  was  total  incapacity  to  util- 
ize it.  Mr.  Colfax  stood  with  one  ear  to  the  despairing 
cry  of  the  country,  with  the  other  to  the  difficulties  that 
beset  the  President.  In  those  trying  times  he  was  to  the 
President's  troubled  life  what  bursts  of  sunshine  are  to  a 
stormy  day.  The  two  men  were  much  together.  Through 
his  connection  with  the  press  and  his  wide  personal  ac- 
quaintance, he  had  unusual  facilities  for  both  sounding 
and  influencing  public  sentiment.  His  experience,  his 
judgment,  the  entire  weight  of  his  influence,  were  at  Mr. 
Lincoln's  service.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  more  trusted  or 
useful  friend. 

His  support  was  considerate.  The  President  was  en. 
compassed  with  difficulties  that  impatient  handling  would 
have  increased  instead  of  diminished.  Patience  was,  per- 
haps, the  quality  most  essential  in  the  Presidential  office, 
and  impatience  had  become  the  habit  of  the  great  Repub- 
lican editors.  While  sympathizing  with  all  his  heart  in 
the  aspirations  and  purposes  of  the  radical  Republicans, 
Colfax  refrained  from  criticism  or  comment  that  could 
only  embarrass  and  weaken.  "  I  regret,"  he  said  in  the 
House,  "that  the  President  modified  Fremont's  proclama- 
tion. But  I  know  Mr.  Lincoln  to  be  as  honest  and  con- 


1 88  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

scientious  and  as  true-hearted  a  man  as  walks  the  earth, 
and  I  know  he  must  have  taken  this  position  because  he 
felt,  looking  over  the  whole  field,  that  it  seemed  to  be  his 
duty." 

Again  :  "  I  have  endeavored  to  restrain  myself  from 
strictures  on  any  general  in  the  field,"  he  writes  to  the 
Register  ;  "  and  while  expressing  a  regret  and  a  solicitude 
that  I  cannot  conceal,  I  hope  the  success  of  General 
McClellan's  plans  will  prove  that  every  step  that  he  has 
taken,  and  that  every  step  that  he  has  not  taken,  since  last 
July,  has  been  for  the  best."  He  writes  Mr.  Wheeler 
privately,  April  4th  :  "  For  months  I  have  lost  confidence 
in  him,  but  this  is  the  first  time  I  have  given  it  expression. 
The  Administration  retain  him,  fearing  to  break  up  the 
unity  of  the  North  by  his  removal,  as  the  Democrats  stand 
by  him  almost  to  a  man." 

He  desired  the  dismission  of  the  unwilling  or  incom- 
petent generals,  he  desired  the  emancipation  and  use  of 
the  blacks  as  soldiers,  he  desired  a  sweeping  confiscation. 
On  this  he  spoke  in  part  as  follows  : 

"When  I  return  home  I  shall  miss  many  a  familiar  face  that  has 
looked  on  me  in  past  years  with  the  beaming  eye  of  friendship.  I  shall 
see  those  who  have  come  home  to  linger  and  die,  with  constitutions 
broken  down  by  exposure,  by  wounds,  and  disease.  I  shall  see  women, 
clothed  now  in  widows'  weeds,  whom  I  have  met  Sabbath  after  Sabbath 
leaning  on  a  beloved  husband's  arm,  as  they  went  to  the  peaceful  sanctu- 
ary. I  shall  see  orphans  destitute,  with  no  one  to  train  their  infant  steps 
in  paths  of  usefulness.  I  shall  see  the  swelling  hillock  in  the  grave- 
yard— where  after  life's  fitful  fever  we  shall  all  be  gathered— betokening 
that  there,  prematurely  cut  off  by  a  rifle-ball  aimed  at  the  life  of  the  Re- 
public, a  patriot  soldier  sleeps.  I  shall  see  desolate  hearthstones  and 
woe  and  anguish  on  every  side.  This  suffering  and  these  sacrifices  have 
been  entailed  on  us  as  part  of  the  fearful  cost  of  saving  our  country  from 
destruction.  Standing  here  between  the  living  and  the  dead,  we  cannot 
avoid  the  grave  responsibility  thruct  upon  us. 

"  When  we  return  to  them,  the  people  will  ask  us  :  *  When  our  brave 
soldiers  went  forth  to  the  battle  field,  what  did  you  civilians  in  the  halls 
of  Congress  do  to  cripple  the  power  of  the  rebels  whom  they  confronted 
at  the  cannon's  mouth  ?  What  legislation  did  you  enact  to  punish  those 
who  were  responsible,  by  their  perjury  and  treason,  for  this  suffering, 
desolation,  and  death  ?  Did  you  levy  heavy  taxes  on  us  to  pay  the  ex- 
penses of  a  war  into  which  we  were  unwillingly  forced,  and  allow  the 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  189 

men  who  are  the  authors  of  it  to  go  comparatively  free  ?  Did  you  leave 
the  slaves  of  these  rebels  to  plant,  to  sow,  to  till  and  reap  their  farms, 
and  thus  support  their  masters  in  the  armies  of  treason,  while  they,  thus 
strengthened,  met  us  in  the  field  ?  Did  you  require  the  patriots  in  the 
loyal  States  to  give  up  business,  property,  home,  health,  and  life  for 
their  country,  and  yet  hesitate  about  using  the  law-making  power  of  the 
Republic  to  subject  traitors  to  the  penalties,  as  to  property  and  posses- 
sions, which  their  crimes  deserve  ?  ' 

"  I  should  feel  as  if  worthy  of  the  severest  condemnation  for  life  if  I 
did  not  mete  out  to  those  who  are  the  cause  of  all  this  woe  and  anguish 
and  death,  beside  which  the  vast  expenses  of  the  war  dwindle  into  insig- 
nificance, the  sternest  penalties  of  the  law,  while  they  still  remain  in 
arms  in  their  parricidal  endeavor  to  blot  this  country  from  the  map  of  the 
world." 

After  almost  infinite  discussion  a  confiscation  act  was 
finally  placed  upon  the  statute-book,  but  it  had  little  more 
than  moral  effect.  Acts  of  Congress  and  executive  proc- 
lamations revived  the  sinking  hopes  of  the  North,  by  com- 
mitting the  country  to  the  overthrow  of  slavery  and  to  real 
as  distinguished  from  sham  war  ;  but  these  were  vain 
against  the  rebels  so  long  as  they  could  withstand  our 
armies.  When  they  could  no  longer  do  that,  the  object  of 
these  measures,  had  been  accomplished. 

Mr.  Colfax  had  the  knack  of  getting  things  before  the 
House  as  well  as  before  the  President.  He  introduced  res- 
olutions, instructing  committees  to  bring  in  bills,  or  to 
do  so  if  expedient,  with  reference  to  taxation,  to  the 
methods  of  investigating  committees,  to  the  punishment  of 
fraudulent  contractors,  to  the  modification  of  the  Fugitive- 
Slave  Law,  and  to  various  other  matters.  He  protested  in 
vain  against  referring  to  conferrees  the  three  hundred  and 
fifteen  Senate  amendments  to  the  tax  bill,  contending  that 
conference  committees  should  be  veritably  a  last  resort, 
and  especially  on  so  important  a  bill,  and  one  which  they 
must  induce  the  country  to  pass,  after  having  passed  it 
themselves.  He  introduced  a  bill  reducing  mileage  from 
forty  to  twenty  cents  per  mile.  The  House  amended  it.  so 
as  to  abolish  all  mileage,  and  then  passed  it.  This  assured 
its  rejection  by  the  Senate.  He  was  charged  with  doing 
this  for  "  Buncombe,"  a  cheap  impugning  of  his  motives, 
which  did  not  deter  him  from  correcting  the  abuse,  so  far 


SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

as  it  was  within   his   power.     Respecting  some   of    these 
measures,  he  wrote  to  his  paper  as  follows  : 

"  I  need  scarcely  say  to  my  constituents  that  no  supposed  necessity 
can  ever  induce  me  to  condemn  any  citizen  on  the  finding  of  a  commis- 
sion sitting  in  secret.  Unless  the  person  attacked  is  given  the  opportu- 
nity to  confront  his  accusers,  I  cannot  condemn  him,  even  if  he  were  my 
bitterest  enemy.  But  men  guilty  of  fraud  against  the  Government  should 
be  punished  as  private  robbers.  I  have  been  pressing  for  laws  thus  to 
punish  them  upon  public  trial  and  conviction.  And  if  a  Cabinet  Min- 
ister is  supposed  to  have  acted  fraudulently  in  his  high  office,  he  should, 
in  justice  to  him  and  the  country,  be  impeached  while  he  is  still  in  office, 
and  thus  given  a  chance  to  defend  himself  if  he  can.  These  things  seem 
obvious  to  me,  but  they  are  not  by  any  means  the  practice." 

His  bill  to  punish  fraudulent  contractors  as  felons  be- 
came a  law.  They  were  also  subjected  to  trial  by  courts- 
martial,  under  the  Articles  of  War.  On  a  proposition  to 
declare  the  seceded  States  Territories,  he  broke  from  the 
Radicals,  and  voted  to  lay  it  on  the  table.  He  writes  to 
his  paper  that  he  "  holds  secession  to  be  a  nullity  ;  that  the 
sovereignty  of  the  State  inheres  in  the  loyal  people  of  the 
State  ;  that  we  should,  by  military  occupation  and  pro- 
visional government,  preserve  the  existence  of  the  State  in 
the  loyal  people,  under  the  clause  of  the  Constitution 
which  requires  Congress  to  guarantee  to  every  State  a  re- 
publican form  of  government." 

With  almost  parental  solicitude  he  watched  over  the 
interests  of  his  immediate  constituents  in  the  army,  spar- 
ing no  personal  exertion  to  serve  them,  contributing  freely 
to  relieve  their  families  in  case  of  distress,  and  to  make  the 
sick,  the  wounded,  and  the  disabled  soldiers  comfortable.1 
He  induced  the  President  to  stop  the  release  of  Southern 
prisoners  on  parole  without  a  corresponding  release  of 

1.  To  his  wife  he  writes,  in  April,  1862  :  "I  send  you  all  the  money  I  have  in  my 
pocketbook,  or  will  have  till  May  4th.  My  printing  bill  has  been  very  heavy  this  session, 
having  sent  out  thirty -five  thousand  [documents]  so  far  to  my  district,  costing  three  hun- 
dred dollars,  and  my  donations  have  emptied  my  pockets.  I  wish  I  could  send  more  to 
you,  but  I  hope  this  will  do  till  week  after  next."  "  Besides  seven  hundred  dollars  he 
sent  in  aid  of  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  before  his  return  home,"  says  the  La  Porte 
Herald,  "  and  the  help  he  is  constantly  giving  the  families  of  soldiers,  he  has  given 
seven  hundred  dollars  in  bounties,  and  made  great  personal  exertion  to  rouse  people 
to  their  duty.  No  man,  except  maybe  in  the  Border  States,  is  making  more  personal 
sacrifices  for  carrying  on  the  war  than  Mr.  Coif  ax." 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  19 1 

Northern  prisoners.  "  I  told  the  President  that  some  of 
my  constituents,  captured  many  months  ago,  were  still 
held,  and  that  their  friends  and  families  could  not  even 
hear  from  them,  and  I  urged  the  stopping  of  this  one-sided 
discharge  of  prisoners." 

The  tax  bill  was  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  three 
weeks,  and  occupying  the  Chair  constantly,  he  took  little 
part  in  its  discussion,  save  to  oppose  a  tax  on  newspaper 
advertising,  holding  it  to  be  both  unwise  and  unjust. 
With  the  certainty  of  universal  and  extraordinary  taxation 
for  years,  his  committee  felt  it  to  be  a  duty  to  make  the 
postal  service  self-sustaining,  and  thus  relieve  the  Treas- 
ury of  an  annual  deficit  charge  of  some  three  millions. 
Bills  were  accordingly  brought  in  to  abolish  the  franking 
privilege,  and  to  require  newspapers  carried  by  mail-trains, 
in  or  out  of  the  mail-bags,  to  pay  postage.  The  bill  abol- 
ishing the  franking  privilege  provided  for  the  mailing  of 
public  matter  without  prepayment,  the  recipient  paying 
the  postage.  Striking  out  this  provision,  to  make  sure  of 
the  rejection  of  the  bill  by  the  Senate,  the  House  passed 
the  bill.  The  Senate  had  from  time  to  time  sent  such  bills 
to  the  House  ;  this  was  the  first  bill  of  the  kind  the  House 
had  ever  sent  to  the  Senate.  The  Senate  tinkered  it  a 
little,  and  dropped  it.  Colfax  had  done  his  part  in  good 
faith,  however,  and  with  one  voice  the  newspapers  com- 
mended it. 

But  when  the  other  branch  of  his  proposed  reform 
was  reached,  they  as  unanimously  denounced  it.  From 
the  institution  of  the  postal  service  down  to  1845-51,  the 
policy  was  to  make  it  self-sustaining  ;  and  no  mailable 
matter  was  permitted  on  mail-trains  except  in  the  mail- 
bags.  Cheap  postage,  regardless  of  other  considerations, 
was  adopted  in  1845-51  ;  but  the  law  still  prohibited  the 
carrying  of  letters  on  mail-trains  outside  of  the  mail-bags, 
and  authorized  the  carrying  of  newspapers  in  that  manner 
only  as  merchandise,  like  the  other  stock  of  a  bookstore 
or  news-stand,  and  to  dealers,  not  to  subscribers.  The 
practice  had  grown  up  without  authority  of  law,  and  by 
analogy  against  law. 


IQ2  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

He  explained  all  this,  and  showed  that  the  payments 
for  mail  transportation  had  increased  three  hundred  per 
cent  in  ten  years,  on  the  plea  that  the  mail  must  be  carried, 
no  matter  how  bulky.  In  these  ten  years  the  revenue  from 
letters  had  nearly  doubled,  while  that  from  bulky  matter 
had  fallen  off  seventy-five  per  cent,  ten  per  cent  in  the  last 
year.  The  road  between  Philadelphia  and  New  York  was 
paid  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars  a  mile,  and 
every  mail-train  carried  thousands  of  newspapers  side  by 
side  with  the  regular  mail,  for  which  nothing  was  received. 
He  showed  that  the  people,  in  the  towns  of  the  Northwest  for 
example,  buying  the  metropolitan  papers  of  newsdealers, 
paid  ten  or  fifteen  per  cent  more  than  they  would  if  they 
received  them  by  mail.  All  in  vain  ;  the  newspapers  would 
not  have  it ;  the  bill  was  laid  on  the  table. 

They  were  denouncing  the  Chairman  of  the  House 
Postal  Committee  in  full  cry,  when  the  bill  taxing  them 
on  their  paper,  on  their  dispatches,  on  their  advertising, 
and,  in  common  with  everybody  else,  on  their  incomes, 
was  reported  from  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means. 
On  this  they  took  a  new  trail.  His  proposal  was  the  little 
finger  of  Solomon,  this  the  loins  of  Rehoboam.  As  he  had 
advocated  his  own  proposition  from  a  sense  of  duty,  re- 
gardless of  the  outcry,  so  he  now  opposed,  though  unsuc- 
cessfully, the  tax  on  advertising,  as  one  tax  too  many  on 
the  newspapers.  "  A  man  is  not  fit  for  public  life,"  said 
he,  "if  he  will  not  follow  his  convictions,  though  the 
heavens  fall." 

The  railways  had  superseded  the  mail-coaches  as  mail- 
carriers,  and  having  no  competition  as  to  speed,  they 
charged  such  rates  for  transportation  as  they  pleased  ;  re- 
fused to  contract  at  all,  and  sometimes  threw  out  the  mails 
altogether.  For  twenty  years  the  department  had  been 
going  to  Congress,  asking  some  legislation  to  regulate 
this  branch  of  the  service.  The  department  and  the  House 
Committee  having  together  prepared  a  bill  for  this  pur- 
pose, the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  carried  it  through 
the  House.  The  bill  provided  that  the  railroads  should 
enter  into  contracts  to  carry  the  mails  on  fair  terms,  mak- 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  193 

ing  the  Court  of  Claims  arbiter  between  them  and  the  de- 
partment, in  case  of  disagreement,  and  imposing  a  penalty 
for  non-acceptance  of  the  verdict  of  the  court.  The  rail- 
road lawyers  in  the  House  complained  that  this  was  taking 
private  property  for  public  use.  "  The  roads  are  common 
carriers  by  the  common  law,"  he  replied.  "They  are 
compelled  to  receive  passengers  and  freight.  Congress 
has  exclusive  power  to  establish  post-offices  and  post- 
routes,  and  Congress  has  declared  every  railroad  a  post- 
route.  By  the  law,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  they  must 
carry  the  mails.  There  is  the  same  right  to  compel  them 
to  do  it  at  reasonable  rates — which  is  all  the  bill  proposes 
— as  there  is  to  limit  their  passenger  or  freight  rates." 
The  argument  was  unanswerable,  and  the  House  passed  the 
bill  ;  but  it  failed  in  the  Senate. 

Other  measures  emanating  from  his  committee  were  a 
bill  to  establish  a  postal  money-order  system,  which  failed 
in  the  Senate  ;  a  bill  requiring  dead  letters  to  be  opened 
and  returned  to  the  writers,  taxing  them  double  or  treble 
postage,  according  to  their  value,  which  passed  both 
Houses  ;  enlarging  the  schedule  of  mailable  matter  to  in- 
clude everything  not  explosive  or  dangerous,  which  failed 
in  the  Senate  ;  authorizing  the  establishment  of  branch 
post-offices,  which  became  law.  By  the  activity  of  the 
Chairman  of  the  House  Committee,  general  interest  was 
awakened  in  the  subject,  and  a  widespread  agitation  for  im- 
provement brought  about  a  reorganization  of  the  service 
and  the  department  before  the  close  of  this  Congress. 

Besides  the  acts  of  this  session  already  mentioned,  the 
issue  of  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  legal-tender 
notes,  and  of  five  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  six  per 
cent  bonds,  was  authorized  ;  the  first  Pacific  Railroad  Act 
was  passed,  and  an  act  giving  to  actual  settlers  a  quarter- 
section  each  of  the  public  lands.  The  session  adjourned 
on  the  1 7th  of  July. 

About  the  ist  of  July  the  loyal  Governors  had  tendered, 
and  the  President  had  accepted,  three  hundred  thousand 
more  volunteers  for  the  war.  Asked  for  a  war  editorial 
on  his  return  home,  Mr.  Colfax  wrote  :  "  It  must  be  brief, 


194  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

for  the  armies  of  the  Union  are  longing  for  reinforcements 
to  aid  them  in  crushing  secession  before  the  autumn  leaves 
fall."  He  ended  the  article  by  offering  ten  dollars  each  to 
the  first  fifty  men  enlisting  under  the  new  call.  The  same 
day  he  was  nominated  for  re-election  to  Congress  by  ac- 
clamation. Brought  before  the  convention,  he  said  plainly 
what  he  had  intimated  in  a  recent  speech  in  Washington, 
that  the  attempt  to  make  war  without  irritating  anybody 
had  failed,  and  that  there  was  to  be  a  change  of  policy. 
The  President  had  assured  him  and  others  that  henceforth 
the  war  should  be  prosecuted  with  all  the  earnestness  dis- 
played by  the  rebels.  In  return,  he  had  promised  the 
President  to  spend  a  month  in  urging  enlistment.  After- 
ward he  would  make  his  usual  canvass. 

He  set  out  the  next  day  but  one,  traversed  the  district 
day  and  night,  "  his  speeches  finding  the  hearts  and  filling 
the  eyes  of  his  audiences,"  l  and  in  just  three  weeks,  in- 
stead of  the  one  regiment  called  for,  three  thousand  men 
had  been  sworn  in  from  his  district,  and  two  regiments 
left  for  Indianapolis  in  the  fourth  week.  "  No  district 
has  done  so  well  as  the  Ninth,"  said  the  Indiana  State 
Journal.  Other  good  men  assisted  with  voice  and  purse — 
none  of  them  are  named  here,  because  all  cannot  be — but 
his  was  the  magic  influence  that  brought  the  magnificent 
response.  "  Mr.  Colfax  knows  full  well  that  every  volun- 
teer who  goes  from  the  district  makes  his  re-election  less 
probable,"  said  the  La  Porte  Herald,  "  but  he  prefers  his 
country  to  party,  and  would  rather  sacrifice  himself  on  its 
altar  than  succeed  at  its  peril." 

In  the  early  days  of  August  the  superior  forces  of  the 
Union  in  Virginia  having  been  beaten  in  detail,  and  the 
enemy  threatening  invasion  of  the  North,  both  East  and 
West,  three  hundred  thousand  militia  were  called  out  for 
nine  months,  and  these  were  to  be  drafted  unless  they 
promptly  volunteered.  The  Government,  the  States, 
municipalities,  individuals,  offered  bounties  for  enlistment. 
The  country  was  districted,  Provost-Marshals  appointed, 
and,  so  far  as  the  President  thought  necessary,  martial  law 

1.  Correspondence  of  the  Chicago  Times. 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  195 

prevailed.  An  Executive  order  authorized  military  use  of 
rebel  property  and  employment  of  "  contrabands"  (escaped 
or  abandoned  slaves).  Paroled  prisoners,  captured  with 
arms  in  their  hands,  were  shot.  Popular  leaders,  talking 
treason,  if  of  enough  consequence,  were  arrested  and  con- 
fined on  the  warrant  of  Executive  authority.  The  Presi- 
dent was  keeping  his  pledge. 

Since  the  meeting  of  the  last  session  of  Congress  the 
Republican  Party  had  irresistibly  drifted  toward  emanci- 
pation. They  saw  that  the  issue  of  Disunion  and  Slavery, 
presented  by  the  South,  could  be  met  only  by  pleading 
Union  and  Liberty.  They  had  incurred  all  the  additional 
hostility,  South  and  North,  that  this  bold  policy  involved, 
and  still  had  not  struck  at  the  root  of  the  evil.  The  conse- 
quent pressure  on  Mr.  Lincoln  to  do  this  daily  and  hourly 
grew  stronger.  From  the  first  he  had  pursued  a  policy 
agreeable  to  the  Border  slave  States.  Conscious  that 
emancipation  was  inevitable,  he  had  procured  from  Con- 
gress an  expression  in  favor  of  compensated  emancipation 
in  such  States  as  would  take  the  initiative.  His  appeals  to 
the  Senators  and  Representatives  of  those  States,  almost 
pathetic  in  their  earnestness,  to  take  the  initiative,  and  thus 
relieve  him  from  his  dilemma,  had  been  finally  rejected. 

In  reply  to  an  open  letter  from  Mr.  Greeley,  published 
in  the  New  York  Tribune ',  he,  on  the  226.  day  of  August, 
wrote  :  "If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any 
slave,  I  would  do  it  ;  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the 
slaves,  I  would  do  it  ;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing 
some  and  leaving  others,  I  would  also  do  that."  A  month 
later,  the  rebels  having  been  defeated  in  Maryland  by 
McClellan,  he  gave  warning  by  a  preliminary  proclama- 
tion, and  on  the  first  day  of  1863  formally  proclaimed  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  rebellious  States.  "In  giving 
freedom  to  the  slave  we  insure  freedom  to  the  free,"  he 
said  in  his  next  message  to  Congress,  "  honorable  alike  in 
what  we  give  and  what  we  receive."  It  was  full  time. 
There  were  vacancies  in  many  Northern  homes,  there  must 
be  many  more.  The  public  debt  was  enormous,  and  grow- 
ing at  the  rate  of  three  millions  a  day.  Taxation  was  come 


196  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

in  unprecedented  form  and  amount.  It  was  plain  withal 
that  the  war  had  only  begun.  The  rebel  States  were  being 
subjected  to  an  even  severer  strain.  What  was  it  all  for  ? 
What  was  to  be  the  ultimate  outcome  ? 

It  is  true  the  fall  elections  went  heavily  against  the 
Administration,  partly  because  of  a  conservative  reaction, 
partly  because  of  a  radical  reaction,  yet  more  from  lack  of 
military  success,  most  of  all  because  the  Republican  voters 
were  in  the  field,  and  only  eight  of  the  States  permitted 
their  citizen-soldiers  to  vote.  Of  the  268,240  votes  cast  by 
these  in  1863-64,  Democratic  candidates  received  but  41,- 
803.  The  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle  were  already 
organized  in  Indiana,  and  their  convention  of  the  8th  of 
January,  type  of  all  the  peace  conventions  that  followed, 
was  eight  months  past.  The  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
they  said,  proved  that  the  war  was  being  waged  to  abolish 
slavery.  It  was  a  hard  charge  to  turn  aside,  because  there 
was  an  element  of  truth  in  it  ;  and  still  it  was  the  absence 
of  Republicans  from  home,  the  vacillation  of  the  Adminis- 
tration with  respect  to  slavery,  and  the  absolute  failure  of 
our  arms,  notwithstanding  the  prodigious  sacrifices  of  un- 
bounded devotion,  and  not  the  alleged  diversion  of  the  war 
from  its  original  purpose,  that  cost  the  Union  party  so 
dearly  in  the  elections  of  1862. 

Colfax's  former  competitors  for  Congress  were  all  in 
the  army  or  on  the  stump  for  the  Union  ticket.  The  Dem- 
ocrats nominated  Mr.  David  Turpie,  of  Monticello,  who 
was  understood  to  favor  the  war  if  it  could  be  carried  on 
without  injuring  slavery  ;  otherwise  not.  He  had  begun 
his  canvass,  and  was  attacking  the  Union  candidate 
with  great  vigor,  while  the  latter  was  sending  his  voters 
away  to  the  war.  Very  few  of  the  August  recruits  would 
have  voted  for  Turpie.  The  district  had  furnished  11,000 
volunteers  ;  8000  of  them  were  voters,  6000  of  them  were 
Republicans.1  Of  2728  men  in  St.  Joseph  County  fit  for 
military  duty,  1128  had  enlisted  before  the  first  draft. 

1.  By  careful  examination  of  the  muster  rolls  at  Indianapolis,  it  was  ascertained  that 
there  had  enlisted  from  the  district  11,064  men,  of  whom  8110  were  voters  ;  and  of  these, 
6125  were  Republicans  and  1985  were  Democrats. 


THIRTY-SEVENTH  CONGRESS.  197 

On  the  27th  of  August  Colfax  began  his  canvass,  not  as 
a  Republican,  but  as  a  Union  man.1  He  said  nothing  of 
party  issues  or  of  his  competitor.  He  did  not  ask  for 
votes,  but  that  the  people  stand  by  the  Union,  and  vote 
only  for  men  who  stand  by  the  Union.  Great  crowds  lis- 
tened with  the  closest  attention  to  his  speeches,  often  for 
four  hours,  said  the  local  papers.  Since  1854  the  political 
issue  had  been  the  extension  or  restriction  of  slavery,  in- 
volving the  triumph  or  destruction  of  free  institutions. 
Now,  when  half  of  all  the  able-bodied  men  were  in  the 
field  in  defence  of  their  principles,  politics  came  as  near  to 
every  member  of  the  community  as  in  the  ancient  cities 
from  whose  walls  one  could  see  the  territory  of  a  hostile 
city.  Mr.  Colfax's  race  was  watched  with  solicitude  in  a 
hundred  Congressional  districts  besides  his  own.  The 
Union  press,  far  and  near,  supported  him.  "  He  is  prob- 
ably the  most  effective  member  from  the  Northwest  in 
either  House  of  Congress,"  said  the  Newport,  R.  I.,  News. 

He  had  spoken  ten  times  a  week  for  three  weeks,  when 
a  series  of  joint  discussions  between  the  candidates  was 
arranged,  the  first  appointment  being  at  South  Bend.  Mr. 
Turpie,  says  the  Register's  report,  was  sophistical  and 
abusive,  his  opponent  courteous  but  exhaustive.  The 
latter  contented  himself  with  demonstrating  from  the 
record  that  Turpie's  statements  were  in  the  main  wide  of 
the  truth.  Mr.  Turpie  got  so  worked  up  at  last  as  to  be 
almost  helpless.  He  could  hardly  keep  his  hands  off  his 
calm  antagonist,  and  made  an  ugly  motion  and  threats. 
There  was  a  commotion,  but  the  peace  was  not  broken. 
"  Turpie  was  a  man  of  large  ability,"  writes  an  observer,2 
11  with  a  throat  of  brass  and  a  voice  that  never  failed.  On 
the  stump  he  was  Mr.  Colfax's  ablest  antagonist.  But  his 
ability  only  seemed  to  rouse  Colfax  to  his  best  in  the  pres- 

1.  "In  the  month  of  August,  1862,"  writes  Hon.  James  N.  Tyner,  of  Indiana,  "Mr. 
Colfax  appeared  at  my  house,  and  roused  me  from  my  slumbers,  having  himself  driven 
twenty  miles  since  nightfall,  to  tell  me  how  sorely  he  was  pressed  in  the  campaign,  how 
gloomy  the  outlook  was  to  him,  and  how  much  he  needed  my  help  for  the  next  six 
weeks.    We  talked  from  midnight  till  break  of  day,  arranged  our  plans,  and  both  started 
out  next  morning  to  work  as  we  had  never  worked  before,  and  probably  never  have 
since." 

2.  The  Hon.  Jasper  Packard,  of  La  Porte,  Ind. 


198  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

entation  of  facts  and  argument,  arrayed  with  convincing 
force.  And  Colfax  was  never  in  happier  mood  than  when 
parrying  the  rough  blows  of  this  redoubtable  Ajax.  His 
calm,  even,  smiling  good  temper  seemed  to  increase  his 
opponent's  passion,  until  the  latter's  words  became  almost 
incoherent  raving.  There  was  never  a  man  on  the  stump 
who  could  make  the  closing  fifteen  minutes  so  effective  as 
Mr.  Colfax,  while  in  general  his  antagonists  had  become  so 
angry  as  to  lose  almost  wholly  the  closing  fifteen  minutes." 

Mr.  Turpie,  who  ran  against  Mr.  Colfax  for  Congress 
three  times  without  success,  said  of  him  after  his  death  : 
"  Those  people  who  think  he  was  forced  out  of  politics  are 
not  acquainted  with  his  resources  ;  they  are  terribly  mis- 
taken. He  was  the  readiest  man  I  ever  met.  All  that  he 
knew — and  his  knowledge  was  wonderful — he  could  bring 
forward  like  a  flash.  His  plausibility  of  discourse,  as  well 
as  ability  to  repel  an  assault  in  debate,  has  rarely  been 
equalled  by  the  public  men  of  the  State." 

"  I  squeezed  through  by  229  majority,"  he  writes  his 
mother — "  as  good  as  a  million — the  bitterest,  closest,  and 
costliest  campaign  I  ever  passed  through.  But  for  my  in- 
cessant speaking  for  more  than  two  months,  and  the  joint 
canvass  with  Turpie,  I  would  have  been  beaten."  "  He 
has  achieved  a  gallant  and  glorious  victory,"  said  the 
Chicago  Tribune  ;  "his  election,  under  the  circumstances, 
is  the  greatest  triumph  of  his  political  career."  "  If  I  am 
beaten,"  he  had  said  to  a  lady  friend,1  "  I  will  be  at  the 
front  with  a  regiment  of  my  own  in  less  than  a  month." 

General  John  F.  Miller,  now  Senator  from  California, 
wrote  him  from  Headquarters  Seventh  Brigade,  then  at 
Nashville,  Tenn.  : 

"  I  rejoice  in  your  triumph  over  the  common  foe.  We  have  been  and 
are  co-workers  in  the  same  cause.  Your  victory  is  fraught  with  the 
same  happy  influences  as  those  achieved  on  more  bloody  fields.  Let  us, 
therefore,  rejoice  together  as  soldiers  in  the  same  grand  army,  battling 
for  the  life  of  our  nationality."  9 

1.  Mrs.  D.  F.  Spain,  of  South  Bend,  Ind. 

2.  Since  this  was  written  Senator  Miller  has  succumbed  to  the  effect  of  wounds 
received  in  battle.    He  died  at  his  post  in  the  Senate  early  in  1886. 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  199 

The  Hon.  Thaddeus  Stevens  wrote  him  : 

"  I  am  delighted  to  hear  the  sound  of  your  voice  again.  For  some 
time  I  held  my  breath,  fearing  the  rebels  had  submerged  you.  How 
will  the  next  Congress  be  ?  I  fear  on  the  wrong  side.  I  still  think  Con- 
gress should  authorize  the  soldiers  who  did  not  vote  to  do  so.  They  [Con- 
gress] have  the  power,  but  the  expediency  is  doubtful.  I  am  a  good  deal 
desponding.  If  Lincoln  would  change  his  Cabinet,  so  as  to  make  it  a 
unit,  and  go  right  himself,  we  might  still  crush  them  before  the  Locos 
came  in.  But  I  fear  he  has  not  the  inclination  to  do  so,  and  that  final 
disunion  and  disgrace  will  follow.  You  know  I  have  always  doubted  the 
result,  because  I  doubted  the  management." 

Another  prominent  Republican  leader  wrote  him  : 

"  You  had  a  hard  contest,  and  came  out  of  it  with  double  honors.  I 
rejoice  very  much  over  the  result  in  your  district,  but  my  joy  is  mingled 
with  many  regrets  at  the  defeat  of  Dunn  and  so  many  of  our  political 
friends.  Our  defeat  is  a  sad  chapter  in  the  history  of  this  war,  but  how 
much  sadder  are  the  military  events  of  the  campaign  !  Think  of  Bragg 
organizing  at  leisure  an  army  within  easy  striking  distance  of  Buell's 
magnificent  army  of  double  the  numbers.  Think, 'then,  of  his  passing 
Buell  at  leisure,  marching  four  hundred  miles  north,  taking  Munfordsville 
while  Buell  was  resting  ;  then  at  leisure  robbing  and  plundering  the  loyal 
people  of  Kentucky  of  indispensable  supplies,  and  marching  away  with 
his  immense  train  without  a  blow  being  struck  by  Buell.  The  affair  at 
Perryville  adds  infamy  to  the  record.  Think  of  Gilbert  lying  idle  within 
one  mile,  and  Buell  within  two  miles  with  their  immense  forces,  and 
allowing  Bragg  to  attack  and  overpower  a  single  corps  of  our  army. 
Great  God,  it  is  terrible  to  see  the  noblest  cause  overthrown  by  such 
strategy  ! 

"  We  must  have  a  radical  change  or  we  must  stop  the  war.  We  must 
not  waste  the  lives  and  treasure  of  our  people,  unless  we  can  see  before 
us  some  hope  of  preserving  our  Government.  I  am  utterly  discouraged 
unless  the  President  has  force  of  character  enough  to  infuse  energy  and 
order  into  our  army,  or  rather  into  its  officers.  You  know  I  have  long 
thought,  and,  perhaps,  too  freely  expressed  the  opinion,  that  our  worst 
calamities  have  been  caused  by  the  want  of  dignity,  energy,  and  order  in 
the  President.  I  think  so  now,  and  unless  we  can  supply  them,  I  tell  you, 
with  the  soberest  conviction,  that  our  cause  and  our  country  are  ruined  ; 
and  that  we,  who  elected  Lincoln,  but  have  no  share  in  his  counsels,  will 
be  forever  disgraced  and  dishonored.  As  the  result,  we  have  seen  our 
best  friends  slaughtered  in  battle  or  defeated  by  the  people.  Colfax,  you 
and  I,  and  men  like  us,  whose  fate  is  staked  upon  success  in  this  war,  have 
got  to  pursue  a  more  definite  policy,  or  the  defeat  or  treachery  of  Demo- 
cratic generals,  supported  and  upheld  by  a  Republican  President,  will 
destroy  us,  and  dishonor  and  dismember  our  country.  For  one,  I  will 


200  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

be 'no  longer  responsible  where  I  have  no  voice  to  guide.  I  will  not  fol- 
low where  my  judgment  does  not  lead  the  way,  and  especially  those  for 
whom  I  have  no  respect." 

Mr.  Joseph  Medill  wrote  in  much  the  same  strain,  inter- 
esting as  a  look  behind  the  curtains  of  those  times.  He 
says  : 

"  What  a  dismal  retrospect  is  the  past  eighteen  months  !  That  period 
consists  of  epaulettes  and  apathy,  imbecility  and  treachery,  idiocy  and 
ignorance,  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  people,  supineness  on  the  part  of 
the  Government.  McClellan  in  the  field  and  Seward  in  the  Cabinet  have 
been  the  evil  spirits  that  have  brought  our  grand  cause  to  the  very  brink 
of  death.  Seward  must  be  got  out  of  the  Cabinet.  He  is  Lincoln's  evil 
genius.  He  has  been  President  de  facto,  and  has  kept  a  sponge  saturated 
with  chloroform  to  Uncle  Abe's  nose  all  the  while,  except  one  or  two 
brief  spells,  during  which  rational  intervals  Lincoln  removed  Buell,  issued 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  discharged  McClellan.  Smith  is  a 
cipher  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Seward  integer — by  himself,  nothing  but 
a  doughface.  Bates  is  a  fossil  of  the  Silurian  era— red  sandstone,  at  least 
— and  should  never  have  been  quarried  out  of  the  rocks  in  which  he  was 
imbedded.  Blair  was  thrown  into  a  retrograde  position  by  the  unfortu- 
nate quarrel  of  his  brother  Frank  with  Fremont.  There  must  be  a  reor- 
ganization of  the  Cabinet ;  Seward,  Smith,  and  Bates  must  go  out. 

"  After  very  careful  reflection,  I  think  you  had  better  go  into  the 
Cabinet  for  two  years,  if  the  President  will  give  you  the  Post-Office  folio. 
I  would  hardly  like  to  advise  you  to  take  the  Interior.  In  the  former  you 
could  institute  many  useful  reforms,  besides  helping  to  urge  forward  the 
war.  If  the  army  wins  victories  in  the  field,  a  Republican  can  be 
elected  to  fill  your  place.  If  Stevens  is  right  as  to  the  power  of  Con- 
gress, I  esteem  it  the  imperative  duty  of  Congress  when  it  meets  to  pass 
a  bill  forthwith,  conferring  on  the  soldiers  the  power  to  vote.  If  that  is 
done,  we  shall  recover  twenty-five  to  thirty  seats  now  lost.  The  most 
that  our  friends  can  do  in  Washington  this  winter  is  to  urge  forward  the 
war.  Lincoln  will  be  more  approachable,  more  tractable,  and  will  lean 
more  on  Republicans  for  support.  The  Proclamation  must  be  enforced 
to  the  letter  ;  it  is  absolutely  essential  to  success." 

Mr.  Greeley  wrote  him  : 

"If  we  only  had  a  general  at  the  head  of  our  armies,  I  think  we 
should  soon  see  the  end  of  this  war.  If  such  generals  as  we  have  would 
only  obey  orders,  all  would  go  well.  But  when  a  peremptory  order  on 
the  27th  of  January  to  go  forward  on  the  22d  of  February  is  not  obeyed 
till  the  6th  or  8th  of  March,  and  then  only  in  time  to  see  that  there  is  no 
one  to  fight,  what  is  to  be  hoped  ?  I  am  willing  to  go  slowly,  provided  I 
can  be  sure  of  going  at  all.  Standing  still  at  the  rate  of  three  million 
dollars  a  day  terrifies  me." 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  2OI 

The  Union- Administration  Party  was  ingloriously  de- 
feated in  the  great  central  free  States,  including  the  Presi- 
dent's own  State,  Illinois.  But  for  New  England,  Iowa, 
Minnesota,  Kansas,  the  Pacific  States,  and,  singularly 
enough,  the  Border  slave  States,  a  peace-at-any-price 
House  would  have  been  elected  in  the  midst  of  the  war. 
Of  the  result  in  Indiana,  the  editor  of  the  Register  said  : 
"  The  immense  preponderance  of  Union  men  in  the  Indi- 
ana regiments  has  given  a  temporary  victory  to  the  8th-of- 
January  partisans,  but  it  will  be  a  short-lived  one.  In  the 
War  of  1812  State  after  State  was  lost  by  the  war  party  for 
the  same  reason.  But  when  the  soldiers  returned  their 
ballots  crushed  the  party  which  had  taken  advantage  of 
their  absence  to  win  party  victories  and  embarrass  the  Ad- 
ministration." 

Commenting  on  the  supersedure  of  Generals  McClellan 
and  Buell  by  Generals  Burnside  and  Rosecrans,  he  says  : 

"  Time  after  time  the  President  has  ordered  McClellan  and  Buell  to 
advance  on  the  enemy  ;  again  and  again,  on  one  pretext  or  another,  they 
have  disobeyed.  If  there  have  been  inaction  and  imbecility,  if  rebel 
armies  have  escaped  at  Bowling  Green,  at  Corinth,  at  Manassas,  at 
Yorktown,  the  responsibility  is  with  these  generals,  whose  politics  are  the 
same  as  Fernando  Wood's,  and  not  with  Abraham  Lincoln.  Army  after 
army  has  wasted  away  under  the  inexplicable  irresolution  of  McClellan. 
The  public  confidence,  which  crowned  him  in  advance  with  the  laurels 
which  it  doubted  not  he  would  win,  waned  month  by  month  till  despair 
brooded  over  the  land.  But  the  President  has  at  last  spoken  the  word 
which  dispels  the  cloud  and  awakens  new  hope  and  vigor  in  every  heart." 

On  the  yth  of  December  he  writes  his  mother  :  "  I 
could  have  gone  into  the  Cabinet  if  I  had  desired  to,  but 
told  Mr.  Lincoln  I  could  not  surrender  my  district  to  the 
enemy,  which  every  one  wrote  me  I  would  do  if  I  re- 
signed.'' The  occasion  was  the  transfer  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  Interior,  Caleb  B.  Smith,  to  a  judgeship.  In  this 
letter  to  his  mother  occurs  the  following  :  "  I  enclose  you 
a  letter  (to  read  and  destroy)  because  it  is  from  a  person 
you  know.  I  replied  to  it  to-day,  thanking  him  for  his 
good  wishes,  but  telling  him  that  at  the  end  of  my  term,  in 
1865,  I  intend,  after  ten  years  of  Congressional  life,  to 
retire  to  the  quiet  of  home,  as  I  do. "  ' '  Even  in  the  midst  of 


202  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

great  undertakings/'  says  Guizot,  "  domestic  affection 
forms  the  basis  of  life,  and  the  most  brilliant  public  career 
has  only  superficial  and  incomplete  enjoyments." 

Congress  met  for  the  short  session  December  ist.  Pre- 
amble and  resolution  in  condemnation  of  arbitrary  arrests 
were  at  once  introduced  in  the  House.  Mr.  Colfax  moved 
that  they  lie  on  the  table,  saying  the  preamble  asserted  what 
was  not  true.  His  motion  prevailed  by  a  vote  of  about  80 
to  40.  A  week  later  a  bill  to  indemnify  the  President  for 
his  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  introduced, 
read  the  second  time,  and  put  on  its  passage.  Objection 
was  made  to  "  thrusting  a  measure  of  this  kind  through 
the  House  without  a  moment's  consideration,  as  discredit- 
able to  the  country  and  to  the  House."  Mr.  Colfax  said  : 

"  I  think  a  majority  of  the  House  are  prepared  to  pass  the  bill  now. 
Instead  of  being  anything  discreditable,  I  think  it  would  be  highly  credit- 
able to  the  House  to  pass  the  bill  at  this  early  stage  of  the  session.  We 
all  understand  the  whole  question.  It  has  been  discussed  all  over  the 
land  whether  the  President  should  have  authorized  the  suspension  of  the 
habeas  corpus  as  to  persons  charged  with  treason,  or  with  sympathizing 
with  it  during  this  Rebellion,  or  not.  All  that  has  been  done  has  been 
done  by  his  authority,  communicated  through  his  secretaries,  and  through 
them  to  others.  I  stand  ready  to  pass  a  bill  indemnifying  him.  We 
have  either  to  vindicate  him,  as  now  proposed,  or  leave  him  to  be  perse- 
cuted as  soon  as  he  retires  from  office  by  those  whom  he  arrested.  I  re- 
joice that  I  have  this  opportunity  of  voting  for  this  bill,  and  I  hope  it  will 
pass  at  once." 

The  bill  passed  the  House,  but  in  its  final  shape  pro- 
vided that  persons  arbitrarily  arrested  should  be  released 
if  they  were  not  indicted  by  the  grand  jury  of  a  United 
States  Court  at  the  first  opportunity. 

He  supported  the  bill  admitting  West  Virginia,  which 
had  been  passed  by  the  Senate  at  the  previous  session. 
He  said  in  substance  that  the  machinery  of  the  State  Gov- 
ernment of  Virginia  had  been  abandoned  by  Governor 
Letcher  and  the  Legislature  which  participated  with  him 
in  his  treason.  Thus  lapsed,  the  loyal  people  of  West  Vir- 
ginia took  possession  of  it,  in  order  that  the  State  might  not 
be  driven  into  rebellion.  At  different  times,  and  under 
varying  circumstances,  and  almost  always  without  protest 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  203 

from  any  quarter,  the  President,  Cabinet  Ministers,  the 
Senate,  and  the  House  had  recognized  the  Governor  and 
Legislature  at  Wheeling  as  the  rightful  authorities  of  Vir- 
ginia. In  his  opinion,  there  was  no  constitutional  diffi- 
culty. The  forty-eight  counties  had  area  and  resources 
sufficient  for  a  State  ;  they  and  their  people  were  divided 
and  diverse  from  Virginia  east  of  the  mountains  ;  they  had 
stood  by  the  Union  from  the  first  ;  they  had  provided  for 
emancipation,  and  it  was  the  unanimous  desire  of  their 
people.  The  bill  passed,  was  approved  by  the  President, 
and,  without  any  intention  of  so  doing,  Virginia,  the  mother 
of  secession,  was  by  this  division  of  her  original  territory 
made  a  perpetual  memorial  of  that  unhappy  folly,  and  of 
the  epoch  of  national  convulsion  to  which  it  gave  rise. 

Early  in  December  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was 
thrown  against  the  heights  of  Fredericksburg,  with  a  loss 
of  ten  thousand  killed  and  wounded  men.  Mr.  Medill 
wrote  Coif  ax  :  "Our  people  all  have  the  '  blues.'  The 
feeling  of  utter  hopelessness  is  stronger  than  at  any  time 
since  the  war  began.  The  terrible  bloody  defeat  of  our 
brave  army  at  Fredericksburg  leaves  us  almost  without 
hope."  And  again  : 

"  The  leaders  of  the  Democratic  Party  are  fast  swinging  that  powerful 
organization  into  an  attitude  of  serious  hostility  to  the  war  and  the  Gov- 
ernment. The  public  discontent  waxes  greater  daily.  Failure  of  the 
army,  weight  of  taxes,  depreciation  of  money,  want  of  cotton — which 
affects  every  family — increasing  national  debt,  deaths  in  the  army,  no 
prospect  of  success,  the  continued  closure  of  the  Mississippi,  exorbitant 
charges  of  transportation  companies  for  carrying  the  farmers'  products 
eastward — all  combine  to  produce  the  existing  state  of  despondency  and 
desperation.  By  a  common  instinct  everybody  feels  that  the  war  is 
drawing  toward  a  disastrous  and  disgraceful  termination.  Money  cannot 
be  supplied  much  longer  to  a  beaten,  demoralized,  homesick  army.  Some- 
times I  think  nothing  is  left  now  but '  to  fight  for  a  boundary.'  " 

With  a  million  men  under  arms  disaster  followed  on  the 
heels  of  disaster.  The  country  was  distressed,  and  the 
Republican  leaders  were  dissatisfied  to  the  last  degree. 
Under  a  great  pressure  for  a  reorganization  of  the  Cabinet, 
the  President  requested  the  leading  members  to  resign 
their  portfolios.  Seward  and  Chase  tendered  their  resig- 


204  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

nations  ;  Stanton  and  Blair  declined  to  tender  theirs,  and 
after  waiting  a  week,  Mr.  Lincoln  desired  Seward  and 
Chase  to  recall  their  action.  The  Cabinet  was  a  "  politi- 
cal mosaic,"  in  a  sense,  but  the  trouble  was  not  in  the 
Cabinet.  It  was  in  the  lack  of  generals  competent  to 
cope  with  the  Confederate  generals  and  destroy  their 
armies. 

The  opponents  of  the  war  were  exceedingly  active  and 
bold.  Peace  meetings  were  numerous  and  their  demands 
vociferous.  Commissioners  were  to  be  sent  from  the 
Northwest  to  Richmond  to  make  peace  at  any  rate.  The 
Legislature  of  Indiana  was  full  of  treasonable  schemes. 
By  breaking  a  quorum,  the  Republican  members  of  that 
body  defeated  the  plans  of  the  Copperheads  to  tie  the 
hands  of  Governor  Morton,  whereupon  the  Legislature  ad- 
journed sine  die,  without  passing  the  appropriation  bills. 
Governor  Morton  carried  on  the  State  Government  the 
next  two  years  upon  his  own  resources.  Governor  Rich- 
ard Yates  had  a  similar  experience  with  the  Legislature  of 
Illinois.  They  undertook  to  tie  his  hands  in  the  same 
manner,  but  the  Constitution  empowering  him  to  do  so,  he 
prorogued  them,  and  carried  on  the  government  of  Illinois 
upon  his  own  resources  the  next  two  years.  A  great  vic- 
tory, won  by  the  arms  of  the  Confederacy  in  February, 
might  have  changed  the  course  of  history.  But  this  agi- 
tation for  peace  received  no  encouragement  from  the  Con- 
federacy. The  Richmond  press  spurned  all  overtures  in 
advance,  taking  care  to  express  their  contempt  for  the  men 
who  proposed  to  tender  them.  Union  meetings,  both  in 
the  States  and  at  the  front,  in  which  citizen  and  soldier, 
with  equal  vigor,  denounced  the  attitude  of  the  Copper- 
heads, somewhat  cooled  the  ardor  of  the  peace  party. 

Congress  answered  this  "  fire  in  the  rear"  by  the  ap- 
propriation of  eight  hundred  millions  for  the  prosecution 
of  the  war,  by  the  passage  of  a  bill  to  raise  three  hundred 
negro  regiments,  and  by  subjecting  all  able-bodied  men 
between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  forty-five  to  military  duty 
on  call  of  the  President.  Various  measures  were  adopted 
to  raise  money.  Additional  taxes  were  imposed.  The 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  20$ 

issue  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  legal-tender 
notes,  the  sale  of  nine  hundred  millions  of  bonds,  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  national  banks,  were  authorized. 

Mr.  Colfax  advocated  the  taxation  of  bank  circulation. 
Since  the  notes  of  individuals  were  taxed,  he  thought  the 
notes  of  the  banks  should  be  taxed.  He  said  he  appreci- 
ated the  services  of  the  banks  to  the  Government  in  the 
crisis  of  its  needs,  but  against  the  golden  treasures  of  the 
banks  his  constituents  had  given  their  living  treasures,  and 
his  constituents  were  not  exempted  from  taxation.  He  had 
defended  before  them  the  principle  of  the  tax  bill.  He 
had  told  them  if  they  struck  him  down  for  voting  for  the 
tax  bill,  imperfect  as  it  was,  they  might  do  so  ;  but  all  in- 
equalities should  be  removed.  He  supported  the  imposi- 
tion of  this  tax,  not  to  crush  the  banks,  but  as  a  revenue 
measure  and  to  equalize  taxation.  Every  person  and  every 
business  should  bear  their  share  of  the  common  burden. 
"  That  is  the  pole-star  of  duty  which  guides  me  in  all  my 
votes  on  these  measures,"  said  he. 

When  the  Senate  bill  codifying  the  postal  laws  came  to 
the  House,  he  explained  the  reforms  it  embodied,  moved 
the  amendments  agreed  upon  by  his  committee,  and  when 
the  House  got  through  with  the  bill,  the  Senate  might  well 
be  pardoned  for  not  recognizing  it.  The  second  conference 
committee  came  to  an  agreement,  the  bill  passed  both 
Houses  and  became  law.  It  established  uniform  rates  of 
letter  postage  :  three  cents  per  half  ounce,  or  fraction 
thereof,  throughout  the  country.  The  three  hundred  dif- 
ferent rates  on  printed  matter  were  reduced  to  a  maximum 
of  twelve.  The  franking  privilege  was  limited,  incidental 
expenses  reduced,  and  decided  improvements  made  in 
many  other  respects.  The  franking  privilege  was  not 
abolished,  nor  postage  imposed  on  newspapers  carried  by 
mail-trains  outside  of  the  mail-bags,  nor  the  department 
relieved  in  its  trouble  with  the  railroads,  nor  a  postal 
money-order  system  established — reforms  and  improve- 
ments for  which  he  had  contended — but  a  very  long  stride 
in  advance  had  been  taken.  This  was  his  last  official  con- 
nection with  postal  affairs,  but  he  never  lost  his  interest  in 


206  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

them,  or  ceased  to  offer  suggestions  for  making  the  service 
a  greater  convenience  to  the  people.  Among  his  papers, 
running  through  all  his  later  years,  are  acknowledgments 
of  post-office  men,  from  the  head  of  the  department  down, 
of  the  benefit  of  his  suggestions. 

His  letters  during  this  session  were  filled  with  matters 
of  interest  to  the  soldiers.  He  interested  himself  to  have 
the  army  hospitals  in  Tennessee  improved,  and  Chicago, 
as  well  as  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis,  made  a  depository  for 
artificial  limbs  ;  he  informed  the  friends  of  sick  and  dis- 
abled soldiers  how  to  secure  their  discharge.  He  noted 
the  successes  and  promotions  of  the  Indiana  troops.  He 
introduced  a  resolution  in  the  House,  which  was  adopted, 
inquiring  if  rebel  officers  had  been  released  on  parole  since 
Mr.  Jefferson  Davis' s  refusal  to  exchange  or  parole  Union 
officers,  and  one  desiring  the  Second  Auditor  of  the 
Treasury  to  devise  some  plan  by  which  the  hundred  dollars 
bounty  should  be  promptly  paid  to  the  families  of  deceased 
volunteers.  On  the  28th  of  March,  1863,  Mr.  Alfred  Har- 
rison, Treasurer  of  the  Indiana  Sanitary  Committee,  wrote 
him  from  Indianapolis  :  "  I  was  absent  when  your  large 
and  generous  donation  of  six  hundred  and  twenty-nine 
dollars  and  thirty-four  cents  came  to  hand,  or  I  should 
have  acknowledged  it  sooner.  I  assure  you,  sir,  we  have 
not  received  so  liberal  a  donation  from  any  individual  or 
society  since  our  organization.  I  have  no  doubt  that  in 
your  dying  hour  you  will  be  fully  compensated  by  the 
happy  reflection  that  you  have  contributed  so  much  to  the 
wants  of  our  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  in  the  hospitals 
and  tents." 

"  The  new  year  ushered  in  a  new  era  for  freedom,"  he 
wrote  to  the  Register.  "  Under  the  war  power  vested  in 
him,  the  President  struck  the  blow  at  slavery  for  which  the 
world  has  waited  so  long.  He  will  be  ranked  in  history 
among  the  great  liberators  of  the  race — the  publishers  of 
glad  tidings  whose  feet  are  beautiful  upon  the  mountains." 

Congress  adjourned  sine  die  March  4th,  1863.  Its  pro- 
ceedings had  been  inspired  by  a  purpose  strong  as  the  love 
of  life  to  save  the  nation  from  dismemberment.  Begin- 


THIRTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  2O/ 

ning  with  the  intention  expressed  in  the  Crittenden  Reso- 
lution, to  restore  the  disrupted  Union  without  impairing 
the  constitutional  rights  of  the  States,  it  had  been  forced, 
by  the  desperation  and  strength  of  the  Rebellion,  to  the 
position  that  States  in  rebellion  had  no  constitutional 
rights.  Congress  may,  perhaps,  be  said  to  have  held  the 
radical  element  of  the  Union  party,  and  the  Administra- 
tion to  have  held  the  conservative  element,  until  both  Con- 
gress and  the  Administration,  and  both  elements  of  the 
Union  party,  had  substantially  come  into  agreement.  The 
loss  of  the  great  central  States  in  1862,  so  far  from  deter- 
ring Congress  and  the  Administration  from  their  common 
purpose,  gave  to  them  both  a  new  impetus.  When  this 
Congress  expired,  the  Government  was  irrevocably  com- 
mitted to  confiscation,  to  emancipation,  to  the  arming  of 
the  negroes,  to  fiat  money,  to  universal  enrolment  for 
military  duty,  and  to  so  much  of  martial  law  as  the  Presi- 
dent might  deem  necessary.  Nevertheless,  or  perhaps  by 
reason  of  this,  the  spring  elections  were  favorable.  The 
disaster  of  Chancellorsville  was  retrieved  within  two 
months  by  the  prodigious  military  triumphs  of  early  July. 
The  elections  in  the  Border  States  were  favorable,  the  next 
House  was  saved.  The  draft  riots  were  suppressed.  Mr. 
Clement  L.  Vallandigham,  the  leader  of  the  Northern 
Copperheads,  arrested  by  order  of  General  Burnside,  and 
banished  to  the  Confederacy,  subsequently  nominated  for 
Governor  of  Ohio  by  his  party,  was  buried  by  the  people 
under  an  unprecedented  adverse  majority.  Thus  were  the 
people,  the  Administration,  and  Congress  proved  to  be  at 
one.  Success  was  now  but  a  question  of  time.  History 
must  record  that  people,  Congress,  and  Administration 
were  equally  tried,  equally  true,  equally  heroic  ;  and  that 
each  was  worthy  of  the  other. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THIRTY-EIGHTH    CONGRESS. 

1863-1865. 

DEATH  OF  MRS.  COLFAX. — ELECTED  SPEAKER  BY  THE  UNANIMOUS  VOTE 
OF  His  PARTY. — QUALIFICATIONS  AND  POWER  OF  THE  SPEAKER. 
— COMPLIMENTARY  PRESS  BANQUET,  EULOGIES. — MOVES  THE  EX- 
PULSION OF  LONG. — THE  DEBATE. — PRESENTATION  OF  SILVER  SER- 
VICE, THE  "SOLDIERS'  FRIEND." — RENOMINATED  IN  SPITE  OF  His 
WISHES. — IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  ELECTION. — "STAND  BY  THE  GOV- 
ERNMENT."— His  CANVASS. 

HE  writes  his  mother  July  28th  :  "  Just  received  your 
note  of  yesterday.  I  do  not  think  I  will  be  able  to  come 
for  some  time.  I  cannot  leave  town  so  long  yet.  Time 
seems  to  increase  my  troubles  instead  of  assuaging  them, 
and  I  prefer  the  solitude  of  thought.  In  the  busy  whirl 
of  fall  and  winter  my  mind  will  be  relieved — too  much, 
I  fear — and  now  I  wish  to  live  amid  the  ruins  of  the  past 
while  I  can."  Twenty  years  of  happy  wedded  life  had 
ended  in  the  death  of  his  wife. 

Detained  in  Washington  after  the  close  of  Congress  by 
the  increasing  feebleness  of  Mrs.  Colfax,  for  eight  years 
gradually  failing  in  health,  he  had  been  able,  between  her 
relapses,  to  speak  at  the  Union  League  in  Philadelphia 
and  at  the  great  Sumter  meeting  in  New  York,  announcing 
that  "  not  one  rood  of  ground  over  which  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  ever  waved  shall  be  surrendered  to  treason.  It 
was  not  so  intended,  I  verily  believe,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  nor  will  it  so  result  in  the  counsels  of  men.  A  civil 
war  is  not  justifiable  when  there  is  open  the  ballot-box  for 
the  redress  of  grievances.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the 
blood  of  American  patriots  slain  in  this  war  will  ascend  to 
the  judgment  bar  of  God,  and  there  plead  against  the  Cati- 


THIRTY-EIGHTH    CONGRESS.  2OO, 

lines  of  this  nefarious  Rebellion,  who  sat  in  their  seats  in 
Congress  and  plotted  the  destruction  of  the  Government 
they  were  sworn  to  defend."  This  was  no  mere  declama- 
tion or  empty  bravado.  It  was  on  the  eve  of  the  draft  riots 
in  New  York  and  elsewhere  ;  the  political  complexion  of  the 
next  House  was  still  in  doubt,  no  impression  had  yet  been 
made  on  General  Lee's  army,  the  Copperheads  of  the  West 
had  completed  a  secret  military  organization,  and  lacked 
only  the  nerve  to  enkindle  civil  war  in  every  Northern 
neighborhood.  Nothing  but  the  speedy  organization  in 
Union  leagues  of  the  Union  men  not  at  the  front  and  the 
July  victories  prevented  it.  Even  then,  it  would  doubtless 
have  been  attempted  had  Lincoln  arrested  Vallandigham, 
the  Chief  of  the  Order  in  the  North,  as  General  Sterling 
Price  was  in  the  South,  upon  his  return  from  the  Confeder- 
acy through  Canada. 

The  previous  year  Mr.  Colfax  had  bought  a  house  in 
South  Bend — the  same  from  which  he  was  to  be  buried — 
and  had  written  Mrs.  Colfax  :  "  You  know  it  is  your 
house,  purchased  solely  on  your  account,  and  you  must 
take  charge  of  it."  Instead  of  taking  this  house  this 
spring,  she  was  to  be  taken  to  "  the  house  of  many  man- 
sions." !<  We  have  engaged  rooms  in  a  quiet  Quakeress's 
house  in  the  suburbs  of  Newport,"  he  writes  his  mother 
in  April,  "away  from  noise,  with  no  church  bells  near 
or  piano  in  the  house,  and  shall  go  about  the  ist  of  June, 
if  she  is  able  to  travel.  The  postmaster  at  Newport,  Mr. 
Coggeshall,  a  friend  of  mine,  has  made  all  the  arrange- 
ments for  us,  lives  near  by,  and  will  assist  about  every- 
thing to  make  her  comfortable.  The  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad  have  quite  unexpectedly  offered  her  a  special  car, 
with  an  invalid's  bed  in  it,  to  take  her  as  far  as  Philadel- 
phia, whenever  she  desires  to  go  North,  and  will  get  it 
across  the  Delaware  and  take  it  to  Jersey  City  if  they  can. 
Then  to  Newport  is  by  boat,  and  if  a  pleasant  night,  she 
will  have  a  journey  as  little  fatiguing  as  possible."  1 

1.  In  September,  1881,  Colfax  ran  across  a  letter  of  his  friend  Mrs.  Samuel  Sinclair, 
written  in  April,  1863,  which  brought  back  a  flood  of  memories  to  him.  "You  speak 
in  it,"  he  writes  her,  "  of  the  probability  that  I  am  to  be  the  Speaker  of  the  next  House, 
and  you  '  hoped  to  see  me  wielding  the  sceptre  of  authority  over  that  disorderly  body 


210  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

She  was  moved  as  indicated  early  in  June.  A  month 
later,  in  this  quiet  retreat,  she  breathed  her  last.  -  On  her 
monument  at  South  Bend  is  inscribed,  as  the  legend  of  her 
life,  "  The  path  of  the  just  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the 
perfect  day."  Of  no  one  was  it  ever  more  true.  She  was 
a  good  woman,  such  as  Admiral  Foote,  who  knew  her  well, 
said  could  ill  be  spared  from  Washington.  The  worldli- 
ness  inseparable  from  the  place  affected  her  only  as  the 
sands  of  the  desert  affect  the  flower  that  blooms  in  spite  of 
them.  Said  the  New  York  Tribune  :  "  A  very  large  circle 
of  admiring  friends  share  to  some  extent  the  bereavement 
of  her  husband  and  family.  Mrs.  Colfax,  though  for 
years  an  invalid,  and  verging  toward  '  that  undiscovered 
country,'  from  which  the  most  devoted  love  and  the  utmost 
medical  skill  could  no  longer  hold  her,  had  spent  several 
winters  at  Washington,  and  had  formed  acquaintanceships 
which  ripened  rapidly  into  friendships,  of  which  none  was 
ever  withdrawn  from  her." 

The  bereaved  husband  came  out  of  his  gloom  charac- 
teristically :  "I  will  tell  you  a  secret,"  he  writes  his 
mother  on  the  ist  of  October  :  "  Dr.  Hendricks  and  I 

are  going  to  educate  .  I  was  looking  round  to  see 

what  I  could  do  for  some  son  of  a  widow,  and  it  struck  us 

both  that  Mrs.  was  worthiest  of  all  we  knew  ;  and, 

as  we  found,  had  wanted  sadly  to  do  it,  but  felt  too  poor. 
The  Doctor  pays  for  his  college  tuition,  books,  etc.,  and  I 
clothe  him.  He  is  seventeen,  and  must  have  an  education 
now  if  at  all.  The  Springfield  letter  Mr.  Lincoln  read  me 
in  manuscript  long  ago."  And  to  Mr.  Matthews,  October 
5th  :  "  I  have  a  most  pressing  appeal  from  Senator  Mor- 
gan, Ira  Harris,  Preston  King,  Thurlow  Weed,  etc.,  to 
speak  in  New  York  for  at  least  a  week.  I  can't  disregard 

of  schoolboys; '  about  'the  cosey  little  parlor  in  the  Hotel  de  Parry,  where  you  were 
often  encircled  by  wreaths  of  smoke  ; '  about  the  happiness  you  enjoyed  there.  It  brings 
back  recollections  of  that  wrinter  on  C  Street,  in  Washington,  where  you  spent  some 
weeks,  and  brightened  up  Evelyn's  lonely  hours  while  I  was  at  the  Capitol,  and  cheered 
up  my  low  spirits  as  I  can  never  forget.  And  then,  when  her  ill-health  prevented  her 
returning  to  her  Western  home  in  March,  at  the  adjournment— how  the  past  rises  be- 
fore me  as  I  write  !  Newport,  too,  that  summer,  failed  to  restore  the  dear  invalid,  and 
she  died  there.  The  letter  referred  also  to  Carpenter's  portrait  of  me,  which  you  didn't 
like." 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  211 

it,  for  if  I  am  to  run  for  Speaker  I  must  recognize  political 
duties,  and  I  know  less  about  the  New  York  delegation- 
elect — nearly  all  new — than  that  of  any  other  State.  If  I 
refuse  it  will  hurt.  I  speak  there  from  next  Thursday  till 
the  Wednesday  after,  inclusive,  and  possibly  at  New  York 
City  the  day  after." 

The  Thirty-eighth  Congress  met  December  ;th,  1863. 
Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  was  the  '*  father  of  the  House,' ' 
and  the  only  one  besides  Mr.  Colfax  spoken  of  for  the 
Speakership.  Mr.  Washburne  placed  Mr.  Colfax  in  nom- 
ination, and  the  nominee  received  every  vote  of  his  party.1 
The  Clerk  announced  the  result,  the  galleries  cheered,  all 
faces  smiled,  and  there  was  a  general  turning  toward  him 
as  Messrs.  Cox  and  Dawson,  Democrats,  approached  and 
escorted  him  to  the  Chair.  Gracefully  he  spoke.  He 
thought  the  present  Congress  would  have  to  meet  and 
settle  the  most  important  questions  of  the  century,  since 
the  Rebellion  had  probably  passed  its  culmination,  and 
was  now  nearing  its  collapse.  He  trusted  gentlemen 
would  approach  these  questions  free  from  acerbity  and  re- 
lying on  Divine  guidance  for  support,  remembering  that 
"  they  who  rule  not  in  righteousness  shall  perish  from  the 
earth."  Thanking  the  House  for  its  confidence,  and  ap- 
pealing to  members  for  their  support  and  forbearance,  he 
took  the  oath.  His  first  duty  was  to  repress  the  applause 
in  the  galleries  at  his  installation  as  Speaker. 

The  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser  (Republican)  said  : 

"  No  man  in  the  present  Congress  is  more  eminently  fitted  than  he  to 
fulfil  the  duties  of  that  responsible  position.  One  of  the  most  experi- 
enced members,  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  rules  and  proceedings  of  the 
House,  personally  popular  with  both  parties,  on  account  of  his  courtesy 
and  fairness,  and  bearing  an  unblemished  reputation  for  political  in- 

1.  August  22d,  1863,  he  writes  his  mother  :  "  Washburne  is  working  very  hard  for 
the  Speakership.  I  have  lost  much  of  my  ambition  for  it,  though  it  will  probably 
return  by  November.  But  it  matters  little  whether  I  am  in  or  out  of  the  Chair.  If  it 
comes  to  me,  well  and  good.  If  not,  I  am  satisfied  with  whatever  fate  has  in  store  for 
me  the  remainder  of  my  public  career." 

And,  December  5th,  to  Mrs.  Sinclair  :  "  Have  written  twenty-one  letters  to-night,  clos- 
ing with  one  to  my  dear  mother.  I  hear  from  the  Capitol  that  I  am  nominated  by  accla- 
mation. Caucus  still  in  session.  It  was  a  hard  fight,  but  I  gained  steadily  till  I  got 
above  eighty,  leaving  Washburne  less  than  twenty,  when  he  gave  it  up.  Mr.  B.  says 
it  is  a  magnificent  result,  second  only  to  the  Presidency  itself." 


212  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

tegrity  and  devotion  to  the  principles  which  underlie  our  Government,  he 
takes  his  seat  with  the  general  acquiescence  of  the  body  over  which  he  is 
called  to  preside,  and  of  the  country  at  large." 

The  Boston  Post  (Democratic)  said  : 

"  The  Speaker,  for  a  wonder,  is  not  a  lawyer,  but  has  been  several 
years  an  able  journalist,  and  is  a  courteous  gentleman  of  strong  radical 
tendencies,  but  of  decision,  energy,  and  integrity  of  character,  and  prom- 
ises to  make  an  impartial  presiding  officer.  As  we  cannot  have  a  Demo- 
crat for  Speaker,  we  would  as  soon  see  Mr.  Colfax  in  the  Chair  as  any 
Republican  in  the  House.  He  is  an  intelligent,  active,  working  man,  a 
good  printer,  a  good  citizen,  and  has  discharged  his  duty  conscientiously, 
we  have  no  doubt,  as  a  public  man." 

Soon  after  his  election   the  Speaker  received  the  follow- 
ing letter  : 

"  LA  PORTE,  IND.,  December  12,  1863. 
' '  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax. 

"DEAR  SIR:  At  a  meeting  of  your  personal  friends,  called  together 
by  Mr.  George  B.  Roberts,  at  his  house  on  the  evening  of  December  nth, 
it  was  the  common  impulse  of  all  to  address  to  you  a  letter  expressive  of 
their  congratulations  in  view  of  your  elevation  to  the  Speakership  of  the 
House  of  Representatives.  We  rejoice  in  this  event  as  reflecting  high 
honor  upon  yourself,  upon  your  constituency,  whom  you  have  faithfully 
served  for  many  years,  and  upon  your  associate  legislators.  We  regard 
it  as  the  fitting  and  well-earned  reward  of  your  fidelity  to  every  public 
trust  which  has  been  committed  to  your  hands.  Especially  is  the  event 
gratifying  to  us  as  assuring  us  that  the  new  Congress,  by  elevating  you 
to  this  post  of  honor,  pledges  thus  its  devotion  to  the  interests  of  human 
freedom  for  the  sake  of  the  Union,  and  to  the  restoration  of  the  Union 
for  the  sake  of  human  freedom. 

"  We  remain  very  truly  your  friends,  John  B.  Niles,  A.  Teegarden, 
George  C.  Noyes,  W.  H.  H.  Whitehead,  James  Moore,  Stephen  P. 
O'Neall,  W.  C.  Hannah,  Edward  Vail,  K.  G.  Shryock,  John  Millikan, 
James  H.  Shannon,  Luther  Brusie,  Alfred  R.  Orton,  George  B.  Roberts, 
Daniel  Dayton,  A.  Sherman,  W.  H.  Salisbury." 

The  Speaker  replied  as  follows  : 

"  SPEAKER'S  ROOM,  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  \ 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  December  16,  1863.      ) 

".MY  DEAR  FRIENDS  :  Amid  the  pressure  of  multiplied  duties,  and 
with  large  numbers  of  letters  unanswered  as  yet,  for  lack  of  time,  upon 
my  table,  I  seize  a  few  passing  moments  to  reply  instanter  to  your  very 
cordial  letter  of  congratulation  which  I  have  just  received.  The  signa- 
tures carry  my  thoughts  at  a  single  leap  back  to  the  days  of  my  child- 
hood. Nearly  twenty-seven  years  ago,  when  first  entering  my  teens,  I 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  213 

formed  the  acquaintance  of  your  honored  Mayor  at  Mr.  Hastings's  Bap- 
tist Church,  on  Rolling  Prairie,  which  we  both  attended,  I  but  a  lad  and 
he  a  young  man,  a  few  years  my  senior.  Soon  after,  and  still  in  my  boy- 
hood, I  became  acquainted  with  Messrs.  Vail,  Dayton,  Shryock,  Niles, 
Teegarden,  Millikan,  and,  I  think,  Hannah  also  ;  so  that  about  half  of 
the  pleasant  circle  of  friends  who  sent  me  this  welcome  greeting  have 
happened  to  know  me  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  I  hope  it  is  with  all 
of  them  as  it  is  with  me,  that  there  is  no  rust  on  the  chain  of  memory. 
Amid  all  the  sharp  and  exciting  contests  through  which  I  have  passed  in 
the  stormy  life  that  seems  to  have  been  my  lot,  their  friendship,  like  that 
of  all  of  you,  dear  friends,  has  been  as  steadfast  and  unvarying  as  the 
immovable  hills.  May  I  be  allowed  to  say  that  this  thought  gladdens  my 
heart  more  at  this  moment,  as  I  read  j'our  familiar  signatures,  than  the 
new  but  trying  honors  that  my  fellow-members  have  recently  devolved 
upon  me.  It  is  the  constant  unshaken  confidence  and  regard  of  friends 
at  home  that  has  led  to  the  recent  event  to  which  you  allude.  And  if  I 
can  only  succeed  in  performing  its  onerous  duties  acceptably  to  the 
country,  to  the  House,  and  to  my  immediate  constituency,  I  shall  gladly 
at  the  end  of  my  term  throw  off  its  honors  and  its  cares,  and  enjoy  at 
home,  in  your  society  and  that  of  other  valued  friends,  a  quiet  and  rest, 
more  gratifying  and  heart-rejoicing  because  in  such  striking  contrast  with 
the  exciting  years  of  public  life  through  which  I  have  passed. 
"  With  sincere  regard,  I  am  truly 

"  Your  obliged  friend, 

"  SCHUYLER   COLFAX." 

The  Speaker  made  arrangements  for  rooms  and  board 
with  a  family  on  4^  Street,  and  his  mother,  accompanied 
by  her  husband  and  daughter  Carrie,  went  on  from  Indiana 
to  preside  for  him.  Writing  to  her  old  friend,  Mrs.  Pidge, 
of  New  Carlisle,  Mrs.  Matthews  describes  their  Washington 
life  shortly  after  her  son's  first  election  to  the  Speakership. 
She  says : 

"  I  have  not  felt  very  well  the  past  few  days,  but  I  think  it  is  only 
fatigue.  You  can  form  no  idea  of  what  I  am  daily  called  on  to  go 
through.  At  first  I  received  Schuyler's  friends  every  day,  but  it  was  too 
wearing  on  me,  and  so  we  appointed  a  day  for  callers.  We  had  last  Wed- 
nesday scores,  I  might  say  hundreds,  of  ladies,  besides  the  cards  of  many 
gentlemen.  It  takes  us  three  days  in  the  week  to  receive  and  return 
calls.  But  Friday  evening  is  the  time  !  Had  you  been  here  last 
Friday  night  you  would  have  seen  '  Mr.  Speaker,'  his  mother,  and  sister 
standing  in  the  centre  of  our  drawing-room,  and  in  form  receiving  a 
thousand  people.  They  come  and  go,  generally,  though  some  stay  from 
half-past  eight  to  eleven.  We  have  refreshments,  coffee,  cake,  and  ice 
cream,  not  a  drop  of  wine  or  liquor.  It  is  the  talk  of  the  city  that  never 


214  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Speaker  had  such  receptions.  Mrs.  Lincoln  says  she  is  jealous  of  them, 
for  they  rival  hers.  With  all  the  fatigue  they  are  pleasant,  and  until  they 
are  over  we  do  not  realize  the  fatigue.  It  is  pleasant  for  us  to  be  able 
to  assist  Schuyler,  and  especially  to  be  together  again  as  one  family. 
We  avoid  all  the  parties  we  can  ;  still,  etiquette  makes  it  necesary  for  us 
to  attend  some.  We  were  at  a  dinner  party  at  the  Mexican  Minister's. 
There  were  seventeen  courses  of  meats  and  fruits.  Next  Thursday  we 
attend  a  State  dinner  at  the  White  House.  Thirty-six  are  to  sit  down  at 
the  table,  all  but  about  ten  of  us  members  of  the  Diplomatic  Corps.  As 
I  have  already  met  one  or  two  counts  and  barons,  I  guess  I  shall  not  be 
frightened,  particularly  if  I  am  seated  by  Old  Abe,  as  he  is  called.  Mr. 
Lincoln  is  the  same  kind  man  you  have  heard  me  speak  of,  no  more 
graceful  than  he  used  to  be,  but  good,  and  '  the  man  for  the  place.'  Day 
before  yesterday  we  went  to  Baltimore  to  the  opening  of  the  Maryland 
Sanitary  Fair.  We  had  a  special  car  sent  for  our  party,  which  was  com- 
posed of  President  Lincoln  [who  went  upon  Mr.  Colfax's  invitation],  two 
or  three  Members  of  Congress,  and  ourselves.  We  had  a  delightful  time. 
The  opening  of  the  fair  was  splendid.  The  President  made  a  fine,  in- 
teresting, and  loyal  speech,  and  all  were  delighted  to  see  him.  We 
returned  yesterday,  and  started  to  attend  the  last  levee  at  the  White 
House.  The  crowd  was  so  great,  however,  that  Mr.  Matthews  and  I 
and  thousands  of  others  did  not  attempt  to  enter.  Schuyler  and  Carrie 
went  in,  and  had  a  very  pleasant  time,  for,  as  is  always  the  case,  the 
President  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  make  us  stay  until  all  the  guests  have  left, 
and  then  we  have  a  social  chat,  which  the  Squire  and  I  missed  last  night. 
I  was  too  tired  with  the  great  crowd  at  Baltimore  to  undergo  another  and 
far  greater  crush." 

The  qualifications  of  a  Speaker  were  discriminatingly 
defined  by  Sir  William  Scott,  afterward  Lord  Stowell,  in 
nominating  Mr.  Speaker  Abbott  for  re-election  as  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1802.  He  said  : 

"  To  an  enlargement  of  the  mind  capable  of  embracing  the  most  com- 
prehensive subjects  must  be  added  the  faculty  of  descending  to  the  most 
minute  ;  to  a  tenacious  respect  for  forms,  a  liberal  regard  for  principles  ; 
to  habits  of  laborious  research,  powers  of  instant  decision  ;  to  a  jealous 
affection  for  the  privileges  of  the  House,  an  awful  sense  of  its  duties  ;  to 
a  firmness  that  can  resist  solicitation,  a  suavity  of  nature  that  can  receive 
it  without  impatience  ;  and  to  a  dignity  of  public  demeanor  suited  to  the 
quality  of  great  affairs,  and  commanding  the  respect  that  is  necessary  for 
conducting  them,  the  urbanity  of  private  manners  that  can  soften  the 
asperities  of  business  and  adorn  an  office  of  severe  labor  with  the  con- 
ciliatory elegance  of  a  station  of  ease." 

The  Speaker  of  the  National  House  of  Representatives 
is  popularly  regarded  as  the  mere  administrator  of  the  law 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  215 

and  rules  of  parliamentary  proceeding.  He  is  that  and  a 
great  deal  more.  The  President  ranks  higher,  and  the 
Presidency,  perhaps,  affords  a  broader  field  for  a  great 
politician,  but  no  great  politician  ever  becomes  President. 
Aside  from  the  power  of  appointment  to  office,  which  he 
must  share  with  the  Senate,  the  President's  functions  are 
mainly  ministerial,  and  that  he  must  refrain  from  direct 
interference  in  politics  is  now  a  part  of  the  unwritten  Con- 
stitution. He  transmits  messages  to  Congress,  giving  in- 
formation and  recommending  legislation,  and  he  has  a 
qualified  negative  on  legislation.  But  Congress  adopts  his 
suggestions  or  not,  as  it  chances,  and  his  veto  is  rarely  of 
material  importance.  Lincoln  said  :  "  I  would  rather 
have  a  full  term  in  the  Senate  than  the  Presidency." 

The  Senator  is  an  ambassador  ;  his  selection  implies  the 
highest  distinction  in  his  State  ;  his  long  term  makes  him 
comparatively  independent.  The  Senate  shares  executive 
power  with  the  President.  It  is,  on  many  accounts,  a 
favorable  and  conspicuous  field  for  the  display  of  intellect- 
ual capacity  and  personal  resource  in  debate.  The  Senator 
of  commanding  ability  achieves  renown  and  acquires  far- 
reaching  influence.  No  position  in  the  United  States  is 
more  desirable,  more  dignified  and  splendid  ;  yet  the  Sen- 
ate consults,  debates,  balances,  regulates  ;  it  advises  and 
consents  rather  than  originates. 

It  is  the  House  of  Representatives  that  originates.  It 
is  in  the  House  that  the  political  ideas,  aspirations,  and 
wishes  of  the  people  are  given  form,  consistency,  direc- 
tion, and  effect.  The  Representatives  are  elected  directly 
by  the  people,  and  the  House  is  kept  near  the  people  by 
the  brief  term  of  its  life.  In  short,  the  House  is  the  peo- 
ple's assembly,  the  keeper  of  their  purse  and  their  sword, 
the  storm-centre  of  their  politics. 

The  Speaker  is  not  only  the  autocrat  of  this  popular 
body,  he  is  himself  the  practical  embodiment  of  the  major- 
ity. His  functions  are  not  showy  ;  his  influence  is  largely 
subtle,  indirect,  judicial  ;  his  is  no  place  for  the  striking 
qualities  of  the  leader  of  debate  on  the  floor  ;  but  he  has 
more  practical  power,  and  can  more  directly  and  pro- 


2l6  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

foundly  influence  affairs,  particularly  in  stormy  times,  than 
any  other  officer  of  the  Government.  He  distributes  abso- 
lutely the  legislative  power  of  the  House,  which  is  lodged 
in  committees.  He  controls  the  floor,  assigning  it  to  what 
measure  he  pleases,  promoting  this,  obstructing  that,  at 
his  pleasure.  He  appoints  conference  committees  on  the 
part  of  the  House,  and  as  to  most  important  legislation, 
conference  committees  ultimately  decide  what  shall  or 
shall  not  be  enacted.  He  directly  affects  the  career  of  the 
Representatives,  as  he  brings  them  forward  or  keeps  them 
in  the  background.  Aside  from  certain  rules  which  he 
construes  for  himself,  there  is  no  restriction  on  him  save 
his  conscience  and  his  accountability  to  public  opinion. 
With  capacity  and  character  equal  to  the  demands  and 
opportunities  of  the  position,  the  Speaker's  private  or  per- 
sonal influence  is  almost  unbounded.  To  meet  the  just 
expectations  of  public  opinion,  he  must  be  a  very  capable 
and  high-minded  man.  He  must  organize  the  committees 
so  as  to  give  full  and  easy  expression  and  effect  to  the 
policy  of  the  country  through  the  House,  and  his  personal 
influence  must  be  directed  to  securing  unity  of  thought 
and  purpose.  In  doing  this,  he  will  have  made  the  best 
and  only  legitimate  use  of  his  political  power. 

The  two  successive  re-elections  of  Speaker  Colfax  attest 
the  general  satisfaction  he  gave  in  this  high  office.  These 
were  as  eventful  times  as  ever  chanced  in  the  annals  of 
men,  and  the  actors  played  their  part  in  a  manly  way, 
worthy  of  their  place  in  the  line  of  generations  that  has 
won  from  the  oppressor,  maintained,  and  transmitted  lib- 
erty. Neither  before  nor  since  have  there  been  greater 
Houses  than  those  which  called  Schuyler  Colfax  to  be  their 
presiding  officer  ;  at  no  time  in  our  history  were  the  people 
and  their  Congresses  in  closer  sympathy,  and  this  was  due 
in  part  to  the  Speaker's  faculty  of  wise  and  successful 
political  management.  The  political  advantages  and  power 
of  the  position  were  never  used  with  greater  effect  or  with 
more  sagacity,  nor  were  they  ever  directed  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  nobler  ends.  After  Lincoln's  death  no  man 
spoke  with  more  authority  than  Speaker  Colfax  ;  no  man 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  2 1/ 

did  more,  in  and  out  of  the  House,  to  initiate,  develop, 
guide,  and  carry  to  success  the  policy  that  funded  in  the 
organic  law  the  costly  fruits  of  the  civil  war.  In  writing  the 
life  of  Thaddeus  Stevens,  Mr.  McPherson  found  among  his 
papers,  as  he  writes  Mr.  Coif  ax,  the  Speaker's  pencilled 
suggestions,  which  became,  though  with  considerable  mod- 
ification, the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution. 
"  Nine  tenths  of  the  atrocities  born  in  Washington  have 
taken  birth  from  his  inspiration,"  said  the  New  York 
Leader -,  in  1868,  "  although  his  consummate  art  has  allowed 
the  credit  to  be  received  by  others.  His  position  as  Speaker 
throughout  the  Rebellion  has  given  him  immense  facilities 
for  intrigue."  This  paper  miscalls  the  doings  in  Washing- 
ton, but  is  near  the  truth  as  to  much  of  their  inspiration. 
Colfax  spoke  of  these  "  atrocities"  the  same  year  at  New 
Albany,  Ind.,  as  follows  : 

"  You  and  I  shall  pass  away.  In  a  few  years,  at  most,  we  shall  have 
been  laid  beneath  the  sods  of  the  valley.  But  what  we  have  accomplished 
shall  live  in  all  future  history  ;  and  as  age  after  age  rolls  away,  your 
children  and  your  children's  children  will  rise  up  and  call  you  blessed, 
because,  amid  the  chaos  of  civil  war,  you  dared  to  strike  down  this 
odious  institution,  and  banished  slavery  forever  from  this  fair  Republic 
of  ours." 

The  historian,  Benson  J.  Lossing,  writes  him,  December 
i5th: 

"  Permit  me  to  express  to  you  my  satisfaction  because  of  your  elec- 
tion to  the  office  of  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  at  this  time, 
when  unselfish  patriotism,  firmness,  courtesy,  and  courage  are  needed  in 
high  places.  I  have  watched  with  interest  and  care  your  course  in  the 
National  Legislature  ever  since  you  entered  it,  and  have  rejoiced  to  see 
you,  on  all  occasions,  honor  the  names  of  Schuyler  and  Colfax — names 
whose  bearers  in  the  holy  olden  time  were  specially  loved  by  the  inspired 
Washington.  God  grant  you  ability  to  lead  the  Representatives  of  the 
people  wisely,  is  the  prayer  of  your  sincere  friend  and  fellow-citizen." 

Mr.  Henry  J.  Raymond,  the  founder  of  the  New  York 
Times,  writes  him,  December  5th  : 

"  Your  election,  I  take  it,  is  a  sure  thing.  No  one  will  rejoice  more 
heartily  thereat  than  I.  You  deserve  the  honor.  You  will  distinguish 
yourself  in  discharging  the  duties  of  the  place,  and  the  country  will  sup- 
port you  heartily  in  whatever  you  may  do,  for  it  will  be  wisely  done.  I 


2l8  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

think  in  your  sentiments  you  are  more  radical  than  I  am,  but  I  think  you 
know  very  well  (as  I  certainly  do)  that  statesmanship  is  a  practical 
matter,  not  the  indulgence  of  theories  or  extreme  views  on  any  subject. 
Burke  says  that  if  politicians  had  to  deal  only  with  human  reason,  they 
would  have  plain  sailing  ;  but  they  have  to  deal  with  human  nature, 
which  is  a  very  different  thing.  I  take  it  Washburne  and  his  friends  are 
running  Grant  for  the  Presidency.  The  anti-slavery  men  (distinctively, 
I  mean,  for  we  are  all  that  in  the  main)  will  run  Chase.  I  think  the  task 
of  reconstructing  the  Union  will  be  better  performed  by  Lincoln  than  by 
anybody  else.  It  will  be  one  of  infinite  delicacy  and  difficulty.  Lincoln 
and  Dix  would  be  my  ticket.  Pardon  my  boring  you.  Don't  give  us 
committees  for  the  Presidency.  Do  justice  to  all  shades  of  opinion,  put 
your  heel  on  the  Copperheads  remorselessly,  and  never  forget  that  among 
those  who  will  rejoice  at  your  successes  and  wish  you  well  always,  is 
yours,  most  sincerely,  Henry  J.  Raymond." 

Mr.  Greeley  writes  him,  December  i3th  : 

"  I  am  right  glad  to  hear,  from  your  letter  just  received,  that  you  will 
be  able  to  satisfy  yourself  with  regard  to  your  committees.  I  regard  that 
as  the  great  point.  Hence,  the  suggestions  I  made  to  you  I  made  as 
testimony  with  regard  to  persons  whom  I  happen  to  know  better  than 
you,  but  nothing  more.  I  never  ventured  to  hint  to  any  one  that,  if  you 
were  Speaker,  he  would  probably  or  possibly  get  a  good  place  ;  and  I 
had  no  debts  of  yours,  any  more  than  of  my  own,  to  saddle  upon  you. 
If  you  have  done  exactly  what  is  best,  you  have  done  all  I  ask  or  wish. 
Now  you  see  that  a  Speaker  who  has  to  pay  for  his  nomination  with 
chairmanships  and  good  places  is  in  a  miserable  plight." 

His  election  had  come  spontaneously.  His  fitness  and 
his  desert  had  been  conceded  for  more  than  a  year  past, 
and  after  his  election  at  home  no  doubt  existed  in  the 
country  or  among  the  Representatives-elect  of  his  eleva- 
tion from  the  floor  to  the  Chair  by  common  consent.  He 
could  and  did  constitute  the  committees  to  his  own  satis- 
faction, untrammelled  by  pledges  to  persons,  but,  of 
course,  with  the  necessary  reference  to  considerations  of 
locality  and  of  the  prior  positions  held  by  re-elected  mem- 
bers. They  were  substantially  the  same  in  the  two  suc- 
ceeding Congresses,  and  that  they  were  judiciously  made 
up  is  attested  by  the  remarkable  unity  and  harmony 
which  obtained  in  the  House  during  those  critical  times, 
though  this  was  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  the  times  were 
critical. 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  2 19 

Thaddeus  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  appointed 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  ;  Henry 
L.  Dawes,  of  Massachusetts,  of  the  Committee  on  Elec- 
tions ;  James  F.  Wilson,  of  Iowa,  of  the  Committee  on  the 
Judiciary  ;  Robert  C.  Schenck,  of  Ohio,  of  the  Committee 
on  Military  Affairs  ;  Alexander  H.  Rice, -of  Massachusetts, 
of  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  ;  Henry  Winter  Davis, 
of  Maryland,  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  ;  James 
M.  Ashley,  of  Ohio,  of  the  Committee  on  Territories  ; 
James  T.  Hale,  of  Pennsylvania,  of  the  Committee  on 
Claims  ;  Elihu  B.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  of  the  Committee 
on  Commerce  ;  George  W.  Julian,  of  Indiana,  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Lands  ;  John  B.  Alley,  of  Massachusetts, 
of  the  Committee  on  Post-Offices  and  Post-Roads  ;  Wil- 
liam Windom,  of  Minnesota,  of  the  Committee  on  Indian 
Affairs. 

A  favorite  with  the  editorial  fraternity,  and  the  first  of 
the  guild  to  receive  such  high  honor,  the  representatives 
of  the  press  in  Washington  gave  the  Speaker  a  compli- 
mentary dinner.  Mr.  Samuel  Wilkeson,  of  the  New  York 
Times^  presided.  On  taking  the  head  of  the  table  he  made 
a  little  speech.  Speaking  of  running  over  newspaper  ex- 
changes in  his  occupation,  he  said  :  "  That  paper  [the 
South  Bend  Register}  I  always  read  for  its  own  sake,  for 
it  was  wise,  it  was  honest,  it  was  well  made,  it  ever  had 
news.  'Twas  one  of  the  few  papers  in  America  into  which 
the  scissors  always  went,  or  which  always  communicated 
to  a  political  writer  a  valuable  political  impression.  And 
I  read  the  South  Bend  Register  for  another  reason,  wholly 
peculiar  to  myself." 

Then  he  told  of  his  having  been  in  South  Bend  eighteen 
years  before  ;  of  walking  up  and  down  the  street  in  the  win- 
ter moonlight  while  the  coach-horses  were  changed.  He 
saw  the  sign  of  the  newspaper,  and  through  the  window  a 
man  in  his  shirt-sleeves  walking  about,  as  if  at  work.  While 
musing  whom  it  could  be,  and  whether  his  wife  were  count- 
ing the  small  hours  at  home  ere  his  return,  a  walker  joined 
him.  "  What  sort  of  man  is  the  late  worker  in  his  shirt- 
sleeves ?"  he  asked.  "He  is  very  good  to  the  poor,"  was 


22O  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

the  reply  ;  "  he  works  hard,  he'is  sociable  with  all  people, 
he  doesn't  drink  whisky,  he  pays  his  debts,  he  is  a  safe 
adviser,  folks  depend  on  him,  all  this  part  of  Indiana  be- 
lieve in  him."  "  From  that  day  to  this,"  said  Mr.  Wilke- 
son,  "  I  have  never  taken  up  the  South  Bend  Register  with- 
out thinking  of  this  eulogy,  and  envying  the  man  who  had 
justly  entitled  himself  to  it  in  the  dawn  of  his  early  man- 
hood." 

Briefly  enumerating  the  swift  preferment  of  Mr.  Colfax 
from  trust  to  trust,  he  said  his  hearers  might  find  the  secret 
of  this  continued  regard  of  a  constituency  for  a  citizen, 
of  statesmen  for  a  statesman,  in  his  fidelity  to  principles, 
his  attention  to  business,  his  talents  for  legislation,  his 
constant  and  useful  devotion  to  the  public  good.  "  But 
you  don't  know  the  secret — I  do.  I  learned  it  by  chance, 
by  an  unwilling  and  unwitting  eavesdropping  in  the  parlor 
of  another  noble  man,  John  W.  Forney.  Eighteen  years 
after  my  midnight  watching  of  that  printer  in  his  shirt- 
sleeves at  his  solitary  labor,  I  heard  him  in  this  city  utter 
this,  his  philosophy  of  life  :  '  I  consider  that  day  wasted 
in  which  I  have  not  done  some  good  to  some  human  being, 
or  added  somewhat  to  somebody's  happiness.'  What  suc- 
cess could  recede  from  that  man's  pursuit  ?  nay,  what  suc- 
cess would  not  pursue  that  man  and  forcibly  crown  him 
with  honors  and  gratitude  ?  Schuyler  Colfax,  editor  of 
the  South  Bend  Register,  Congressman  from  Indiana,  and 
for  eleven  years  actor  of  a  philosophical  life  that  Socrates 
might  have  envied,  you  cannot  escape  the  love  of  your  fel- 
low-men. We  journalists  and  men  of  the  newspaper  press 
do  love  you,  and  claim  you  as  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh 
of  our  flesh.  Fill  your  glasses  all,  in  an  invocation  to  the 
gods  for  long  life,  greater  success,  and  ever-increasing  hap- 
piness to  our  editorial  brother  in  the  Speaker's  Chair." 

Mr.  Colfax  responded  with  warm  thanks,  wishing  he 
was  more  worthy  of  the  eulogy  pronounced  on  him  by 
their  distinguished  chairman,  and  also  of  that  from  the 
lips  of  some  too  partial  friend  among  those  who,  from  his 
boyhood,  had  surrounded  him  with  so  much  love  and 
affection.  "  My  heart  turns  warmly  to-night  toward  the 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  221 

lifelong  friends  at  home,  and  I  feel  indeed  that  there. is 
no  man  in  the  American  Congress  who  has  a  constituency 
of  which  he  has  a  greater  right  to  be  proud  than  I  have  of 
mine.  With  a  generous  forbearance  to  all  my  shortcom- 
ings, overlooking  all  deficiencies,  they  have  sustained  me 
ever  by  the  unseen  but  magnetic  power  of  their  hearts 
and  strengthened  me  with  their  hands  in  all  the  contests 
and  canvasses  of  the  past  ;  and  I  shall  go  back,  at  the  end 
of  this  Congress,  to  the  private  life  to  which  I  expect  to 
retire,  to  live  and  die  in  the  midst  of  those  I  love  so  faith- 
fully and  so  well."  He  then  gave  his  views  as  to  the  pro- 
fession :  "  Next  to  the  sacred  desk  and  those  who  minister 
in  it,  there  is  no  profession  more  responsible  than  ours." 
And  closed  with  the  toast :  "  The  American  Press  :  if  in- 
spired by  patriotism,  morality,  and  humanity,  it  cannot 
fail  to  develop  a  constantly  increasing  vigor,  power,  and 
consequent  independence." 

"  As  Speaker,  Colfax  was  the  embodiment  of  the  war 
policy  of  the  Government,"  writes  Colonel  Forney.  On 
the  8th  of  April,  1864,  Mr.  Alexander  Long,  of  Ohio,  a 
portly,  handsome  man,  new  to  the  House,  rose  in  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole,  and  made  the  boldest  defence  of  the 
Rebellion  ever  uttered  in  the  House.1  When  the  Speaker's 
hammer  fell,  Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  saying,  "  It 
means  the  recognition  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  and 
peace  on  terms  of  disunion,"  hoped  the  gentleman  would 
be  allowed  to  finish.  By  unanimous  consent,  Long  pro- 
ceeded to  finish.  "  I  believe  that  there  are  but  two  alter- 
natives," said  he  ;  "  and  these  are  either  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  South  as  an  independent  nation  or  their  com- 
plete subjugation  and  extermination  as  a  people  ;  and  of 
these  alternatives,  I  prefer  the  former." 

Attention  had  grown  more  and  more  fixed  to  the  end 
of  his  speech.  As  he  closed,  there  was  a  general  return  to 
seats,  and  Mr.  Garfield,  of  Ohio,  rose.  He  was  also  a  new 
member,  fresh  from  the  bloody  fields  of  Tennessee,  where 
he  had  won  a  Major-General's  stars.  Complimenting 

1.  This  account  of  this  debate  follows  "  Agate's"  (Whitelaw  Keid)  letters  to  the  Cin- 
cinnati  Gazette. 


222  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

Long  as  a  brave  and  honest  man,  supposing  him  to  have 
come  under  truce  from  the  other  side,  he  dismissed  the 
supposition,  and  denounced  him  as  a  traitor  in  terrible 
terms.  Picturing  the  cost  and  suffering  of  three  years  of 
wide-wasting  war,  and  the  Rebellion  driven  back  into  a  fire- 
girt  corner  and  about  to  receive  its  death-blow  :  "  Now," 
said  he,  "  in  the  quiet  of  this  hall,  hatched  in  the  lowest 
depth  of  a  similar  dark  treason,  there  rises  a  Benedict 
Arnold,  and  proposes  to  surrender  us  all  up — body  and 
spirit,  the  nation  and  the  flag,  its  genius  and  its  honor, 
now  and  forever,  to  the  accursed  traitors  to  our  country. 
And  this  prosposition  comes  from  a  citizen  of  the  loyal 
State  of  Ohio.  I  implore  you,  brethren  in  this  House,  not 
to  believe  that  many  births  ever  gave  pangs  to  my  mother 
State  such  as  she  suffered  when  that  traitor  was  born."  He 
closed  with  an  allusion  to  the  secret  military  organization 
existing  in  the  Northwest,  in  league  with  the  South,  its 
attempts  to  corrupt  the  army,  its  riots,  and  said  that  while 
he  feared,  he  hoped  that  this  was  not  the  uplifted  signal  of 
revolt.  "  If  these  men  do  mean  to  light  the  torch  of  war 
in  all  our  homes,  the  American  people  should  know  it  at 
once,  and  prepare  to  meet  it."  Long  replied,  maintain- 
ing his  ground,  citing  the  sayings  of  noted  Abolitionists 
prior  to  the  war  as  authority  ;  as  if  they  were  applicable 
now,  or  at  any  time  since  war  had  been  precipitated  by 
the  departing  "  sisters." 

His  speech  convinced  Colfax  that  the  matter  merited 
further  notice.  The  next  day,  as  soon  as  the  Journal  was 
read,  he  called  a  member  to  the  Chair,  descended  to  the 
floor,  and  offered  a  resolution  expelling  Long  from  the 
House.  He  said  he  offered  it  from  a  sense  of  duty  as  the 
Representative  of  the  people  of  his  district,  many  of  whom 
were  now  at  the  front  perilling  and  losing  their  lives  in  de- 
fence of  the  Union.  He  harbored  no  unfriendliness  tow- 
ard the  gentleman  from  Ohio,  and  was  acting  on  his  own 
responsibility,  without  consultation  with  his  party  friends. 
If  such  sentiments  as  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  gentleman 
from  Ohio  were  to  pass  unrebuked,  we  had  no  right  to 
complain  of  foreign  recognition  of  the  Confederacy  ;  we 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  223 

should  stop  shooting  deserters  from  our  army  ;  we  should 
call  no  more  soldiers  into  the  field  ;  we  should  not  close 
the  doors  of  this  House  against  members  coming  even 
from  the  conclaves  of  treason  at  Richmond  ;  we  should 
not  object  to  foreign  aid  in  the  disruption  of  our  country 
and  the  destruction  of  our  liberties.  It  was  mainly  with 
reference  to  effect  abroad  that  he  offered  the  resolution. 
None  of  these  traitors  and  enemies  and  their  possible  allies 
had  any  reason  to  expect  hostility  from  this  House,  if  it 
listened  to  such  sentiments  without  rebuke. 

Hastily  consulting,  the  Democrats  put  forward  Mr. 
Cox,  of  Ohio,  to  gain  time.  Mr.  Cox  denied  that  the 
Democrats  entertained  the  sentiments  expressed  by  Long. 
He  cited  alleged  Republican  declarations  of  similar  tenor, 
held  the  floor,  and  catechised  members,  shutting  them  off 
whenever  it  pleased  him.  He  called  on  the  Speaker  the 
second  time  in  vain,  and  then  ventured  to  taunt  him  with 
being  as  prudent  as  he  was  ready  to  descend  from  the 
Chair  to  persecute  a  member.  Mr.  Colfax  replied  to  this 
that  he  claimed  the  floor  when  he  pleased,  and  that  he  de- 
clined to  hold  it  at  the  mercy  of  its  present  occupant,  to 
be  cut  off  when  the  latter  thought  something  dangerous 
was  about  to  be  said.  The  confusion  in  the  hall  increased. 
Members  kept  passing  from  seat  to  seat,  discussing,  as  it 
continued,  the  varying  phases  of  the  debate.  The  gal- 
leries, inclusive  of  the  reporters'  gallery,  filled  up.  Mr. 
Kelley,  of  Pennsylvania,  denounced  Mr.  Cox  for  evading 
the  issue,  and  challenged  the  Democrats  to  repudiate  or 
approve  what  Long  had  said.  Mr.  Harris,  a  tall  Mary- 
lander  of  pleasing  presence,  got  the  floor.  "  I  indorse 
every  word  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  has  uttered,"  he  be- 
gan, and  ended  :  "  The  South  ask  you  to  leave  them  in 
peace,  but  no,  you  say  you  will  bring  them  into  subjec- 
tion. That  is  not  done  yet,  and  God  Almighty  grant  that 
it  never  may  be  !"  The  House  was  in  an  uproar,  the  aisles 
full. 

"  I  rise  to  a  point  of  order,"  said  Mr.  Tracy,  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

"  The  gentleman  from  Maryland  will  suspend.    Gentle- 


224  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

men  in  the  aisles  will  take  their  seats.  The  Chair  will  not 
recognize  anyone  till  order  is  restored."  Members  took 
their  seats. 

11  I  rise  to  a  point  of  order,"  again  by  Mr.  Tracy. 

"  The  gentleman  will  state  his  point  of  order." 

"  My  point  of  order  is  this,  sir  ;  what  right,  sir,  has  he 
to  pray  God  Almighty  to  defeat,  sir — to  defeat  the  Ameri- 
can armies  ?"  The  words  struggled  out,  hot  with  anger. 

11  What  sort  of  a  point  of  order  is  that  ?"  sneered  Harris. 

"  I  want  to  know  whether  a  member  has  the  right  to 
utter  treason  in  this  hall?''  screamed  Tracy  above  the  din. 

"  I  demand  that  the  language  of  the  gentleman  from 
Maryland  betaken  down  at  the  Clerk's  desk,  in  accordance 
with  the  rule,"  said  Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois.  "  Too 
late  !"  "  Order  !"  "  Go  on  !"  "  Never  mind  !"  "  Go 
ahead  !"  from  the  Democratic  side  of  the  House,  which 
had  been  making  all  the  noise  possible  throughout  the 
scene.  But  Washburne  held  the  floor  ;  the  shouting  of  the 
whole  rebel  army  would  not  have  made  him  yield  it.  The 
Chair  sustained  the  point  of  order  ;  the  words  were  taken 
down. 

"  That's  right !    I  say  that  over  again,"  shouted  Harris. 

"  For  one,  I  protest  against  any  man  uttering  such  lan- 
guage in  this  hall,"  said  Washburne. 

"  You  mean  you  are  afraid  of  it,"  said  Harris,  and  he 
was  proceeding,  when  the  Chair  ordered  him  to  be  seated. 
Harris  subsided,  quivering  with  rage,  and,  shaking  his  fist 

at  Washburne,  hissed  :  "  You villain  you  !"  In  the 

confusion  this  escaped  notice. 

Mr.  Mallory,  of  Kentucky,  obtained  the  floor,  and  de- 
nounced the  silencing  of  Harris  as  a  gross  infraction  of 
constitutional  privileges.  "  The  Constitution  expressly 
provides  that  a  member  shall  not  be  held  responsible  for 
words  spoken  in  debate."  General  Schenck,  of  Ohio, 
brought  from  a  sick-bed  "  to  vote  for  the  expulsion  of  a 
traitor,"  asked  :  "  Is  he  afraid  of  the  final  words — shall 
not  be  held  responsible  for  words  spoken  in  debate  in  any 
other  place?"  Mr.  Mallory  collapsed,  and  Mr.  Fernando 
Wood,  of  New  York  City,  took  the  floor  and  indorsed  Mr. 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  22$ 

Long.  Question  arising  as  to  what  Long  had  said,  Colfax 
proposed  that  the  discussion  be  postponed  until  the  Globe 
appeared  with  the  official  report.  This  cleared  the  way 
for  a  motion,  and  Washburne  moved  the  expulsion  of 
Harris.  In  spite  of  a  rattling  fire  of  points  of  order, 
motions  to  adjourn  and  to  lay  on  the  table,  the  House 
was  soon  brought  to  a  vote,  81  to  58,  not  two  thirds — lost. 
The  instant  the  vote  was  announced  Schenck  got  the  floor, 
and  a  page  darted  down  the  aisle  with  a  resolution  censur- 
ing Harris.  Democrats  appealed  to  Schenck  in  vain  not 
to  press  the  resolution,  to  modify  it  ;  he  cared  not  how 
they  voted,  he  said,  but  they  must  now  meet  the  naked 
issue  ;  they  must  either  sustain  or  censure  treason  in  the 
House.  Finding  they  could  not  prevent  a  vote,  they  scat- 
tered or  left  the  hall,  and  the  resolution  was  adopted,  92 
to  18.  "  Well,"  said  Mr.  Boutwell,  of  Massachusetts,  "  it 
reminds  me  that  when  a  boy  I  used  to  set  my  trap  for 
woodchuck  and  sometimes  caught  a  skunk." 

On  Monday  the  debate  was  resumed,  but  in  a  lower  key 
on  the  Democratic  side.  Long  before  the  hour  set  for  it 
there  was  no  unoccupied  sitting  or  standing-room  in  the 
galleries,  and  the  floor,  by  the  complaisance  of  members, 
was  covered  with  a  moving  throng.  Anticipation  was  on 
tiptoe  ;  the  ordinary  business  dragged.  Mr.  Bliss,  of 
Ohio,  opened  the  discussion,  pleading  that  his  colleague 
had  been  misunderstood  ;  that  he  intended  to  express  his 
belief,  not  his  desire,  that  the  Confederacy  should  be 
recognized.  Thaddeus  Stevens,  the  iron  leader,  already 
historic,  suffering  from  illness,  was  next  recognized.  He 
pronounced  the  attempt  to  liken  his  utterances  to  Long's 
a  fraud.  Stating  his  own  position  and  that  of  Long,  he 
concluded  :  "  I  protest  against  being  linked  with  such  an 
infamous  purpose.  No  man  can  do  it  [shaking  his  finger 
at  Cox]  who  is  not  a  knave,  or  a  fool,  or  both." 

Mr.  Fernando  Wood,  regarded  on  all  sides  as  the  worst 
man  on  the  floor,  yet  with  an  audacity  and  use  of  himself 
which  compelled  respect,  no  longer  indorsing  Harris,  pro- 
ceeded, like  Cox,  to  read  ante-war  disunion  sentiments, 
attributed — many  of  them  falsely — to  prominent  Abolition- 


226  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

ists.  General  Schenck,  square,  compact,  and  muscular, 
his  right  hand  shattered  on  a  recent  battle-field  and  carried 
in  a  sling,  rose  and  undertook  to  classify  the  Fernando 
Wood  species  of  Copperhead.  His  sentences  rattled  like 
volleys  of  musketry ;  words  can  but  faintly  recall  the 
scene,  the  peril  of  the  country,  which  then  made  it  im- 
pressive, having  now  passed  away,  and  many  of  the  actors, 
who,  like  knights  of  old,  brought  the  clang  of  arms  to  the 
stern  debate  in  council,  having  now  mouldered  into  dust. 
"  Although  we  may  not  execute  such  a  man  on  his  appro- 
priate gallows,  erected  for  criminals,"  said  Schenck,  "  yet, 
thank  God,  there  is  a  gibbet  of  public  opinion,  where  we 
can  hang  him  high  as  Haman,  and  hold  him  there  to  the 
scorn  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world."  Mr.  Wood's  head 
sank  on  his  breast,  and  for  once  he  seemed  a  little  dashed. 
Mr.  Voorhees,  of  Indiana,  with  a  fine  figure  and  bearing, 
a  good  voice  and  fluent  speech,  essayed  to  answer  Schenck. 
Then  Mr.  Orth,  of  Indiana  :  "  If  General  Jackson  had  been 
President,  instead  of  being  censured,  the  traitor  would  have 
been  sent  to  the  old  Capitol  Prison." 

"  You're  a  liar  and  a  scoundrel  and  a  coward  if  you 
don't  resent  it,"  cried  Harris.  Amid  great  uproar  the 
Chair  overruled  some  one's  point  of  order — "  In  view  of 
the  action  of  the  House,  it  is  not  unparliamentary  to  refer 
to  Harris  as  a  traitor." 

"  I  have  no  reply  to  make  to  the  member  from  Mary- 
land," said  Mr.  Orth.  "  Convicted  of  treason,  declared 
unworthy  of  membership  in  this  House,  the  slobberings  of 
such  a  traitor  in  such  a  place  fall  unnoticed  at  the  feet  of 
honorable  men."  Mr.  Kernan,  of  New  York,  endeavored 
to  defend  Mr.  Long  without  compromising  himself  as  a 
War  Democrat — with  what  success  may  be  imagined. 

He  was  followed  by  Henry  Winter  Davis,  of  Maryland, 
who  spoke  in  his  best  vein.  The  question  was  not,  he  said, 
whether  Mr.  Long,  as  a  citizen,  had  the  right  to  believe 
and  to  say  that  the  dismemberment  of  the  nation  ought  to 
be  permitted,  but  whether,  as  a  Representative,  sworn  to 
legislate  for  this  Union,  he  could  be  permitted  to  legislate 
on  the  avowed  desire  that  the  Union  should  not  exist.  He 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  22/ 

compared  the  power  of  public  opinion  to  the  sea,  "  whose 
tidal  waves  obey  the  fickle  bidding  of  the  moon,  and  roll 
and  swell  and  sway  with  resistless  force,  and  yet  constitute 
the  level  from  which  all  height  is  measured."  Like  the 
ocean,  said  he,  public  opinion  has  depths  whose  eternal 
stillness  is  the  condition  of  its  stability.  "  Those  depths 
of  opinion  are  not  free."  The  waves  of  the  ocean  were 
restricted  by  the  rock-bound  coast,  as  public  opinion  must 
be  when  it  beats  against  the  sanctions  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  national  safety.  Mr.  Davis  admitted  that  "  a  time 
may  come  when  the  question  of  recognizing  the  Southern 
Confederacy  will  have  to  be  answered."  He  continued  : 

"  I  admit  it.  When  a  Democrat  shall  darken  the  White  House  and 
the  land  ;  when  a  Democratic  majority  here  shall  proclaim  that  freedom 
of  speech  secures  impunity  to  treason,  and  declare  recognition  better  than 
extermination  of  traitors  ;  when  McClellan  and  Fitz  John  Porter  shall 
have  again  brought  the  rebel  armies  within  sight  of  Washington  City,  and 
the  successor  of  James  Buchanan  shall  withdraw  our  armies  from  the 
unconstitutional  invasion  of  Virginia  to  the  north  of  the  Potomac  ;  when 
exultant  rebels  shall  sweep  over  the  fortifications  and  their  bombshells 
shall  crash  against  the  dome  of  the  Capitol  ;  when  thousands  throughout 
Pennsylvania  shall  seek  refuge  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie  from  the  rebel 
invasion,  cheered  and  welcomed  by  the  opponents  of  extermination  ;  .  .  . 
when  the  people,  exhausted  by  taxation,  weary  of  sacrifices,  drained  of 
blood,  betrayed  by  their  rulers,  deluded  by  demagogues  into  believing 
that  peace  is  the  way  to  union,  and  submission  the  path  of  victory,  shall 
throw  down  their  arms  before  the  advancing  foe  ;  when  vast  chasms 
across  every  State  shall  make  apparent  to  every  eye,  when  too  late  to 
remedy  it,  that  division  from  the  South  is  the  inauguration  of  anarchy  at 
the  North,  and  that  peace  without  union  is  the  end  of  the  Republic — then 
the  independence  of  the  South  will  be  an  accomplished  fact,  and  gentle- 
men may,  without  treason  to  the  dead  Republic,  rise  in  this  migratory 
House,  wherever  it  may  then  be  in  America,  and  declare  themselves  for 
recognizing  their  masters  at  the  South  rather  than  exterminating  them  ! 
Until  that  day,  in  the  name  of  the  American  nation  ;  in  the  name  of 
every  house  in  the  land  where  there  is  one  dead  for  the  holy  cause  ;  in 
the  name  of  those  who  stand  before  us  in  the  ranks  of  battle  ;  in  the 
name  of  the  liberty  our  ancestors  have  confided  to  us,  I  devote  to  eternal 
execration  the  name  of  him  who  shall  propose  to  destroy  this  blessed 
land  rather  than  its  enemies. 

"  But  until  that  time  arrives,  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  American 
people  that  there  shall  be  no  compromise  ;  that  ruin  to  ourselves  or  ruin 
to  the  Southern  rebels  ere  the  only  alternatives.  It  is  only  by  resolutions 


228  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

of  this  kind  that  nations  can  rise  above  great  dangers  and  overcome  them 
in  crises  like  this.  It  was  only  by  turning  France  into  a  camp,  resolved 
that  Europe  might  exterminate,  but  should  not  subjugate  her,  that  France 
is  the  leading  empire  of  Europe  to-day.  It  is  by  such  a  resolve  that  the 
American  people,  coercing  a  reluctant  Government  to  draw  the  sword 
and  stake  the  national  existence  on  the  integrity  of  the  Republic,  are  now 
anything  but  the  fragments  of  a  nation  before  the  world,  the  scorn  and 
hiss  of  every  petty  tyrant.  It  is  because  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
rising  to  the  height  of  the  occasion,  dedicated  this  generation  to  the 
sword,  and  pouring  out  the  blood  of  their  children  as  of  no  account, 
avowed  before  high  Heaven  that  there  should  be  no  end  to  this  conflict 
but  ruin  absolute  or  absolute  triumph,  that  we  now  are  what  we  are  ;  that 
the  banner  of  the  Republic,  still  pointing  onward,  floats  proudly  in  the 
face  of  the  enemy  ;  that  vast  regions  are  reduced  to  obedience  to  the 
laws,  and  that  a  great  host  in  armed  array  now  presses  with  steady  step 
into  the  dark  regions  of  the  Rebellion.  It  is  only  by  the  earnest  and 
abiding  resolution  of  the  people  that  whatever  shall  be  our  fate,  it  shall 
be  grand  as  the  American  nation,  worthy  of  that  Republic  which  first 
trod  the  path  of  empire  and  made  no  peace  but  under  the  banners  of 
victory,  that  the  American  people  will  survive  in  history." 

Mr.  Pendleton,  of  Ohio,  maintained  that  the  opinions 
expressed  by  his  colleague,  that  the  war  was  unconstitu- 
tional, that  it  ought  never  to  have  been  begun,  that  it 
had  been  prosecuted  without  wisdom  or  success,  that  it 
would  never  restore  the  Union,  that  it  would  destroy  free 
government  at  the  North,  that  for  these  reasons  it  ought 
to  be  stopped,  were  legitimate  debate.  "  The  House  has 
power  to  maintain  decorum  in  debate  ;  it  has  power  to 
expel  for  crime  or  personal  turpitude  ;  but  for  the  expres- 
sion of  any  opinion  upon  any  public  question  in  debate 
upon  it,  the  House  has  no  power  to  expel  or  censure.  And 
it  is  in  time  of  war  that  this  freedom  of  discussion  is  most 
necessary  ;  otherwise  the  state  of  war  would  perpetuate 
itself."  Mr.  Pendleton  continued  : 

"  The  gentleman  [Mr.  Davis]  exhorted  his  friends  to  accept  the  issue, 
absolute  victory  or  absolute  ruin  ;  and  then  he  painted  the  absolute  ruin 
of  this  Government.  Even  he  could  conceive  it  possible.  He  described 
the  home  of  liberty  deserted  ;  this  temple,  reared  by  our  fathers,  destroyed  ; 
its  grace  and  symmetry  and  beauty  gone  ;  its  pillars  fallen  ;  its  walls 
thrown  down  ;  and  amid  '  this  chaos  of  ruin  '  those  who  accept  this  issue 
brave,  determined,  tearful,  sorrowing,  overwhelmed  with  it  in  a  common 
fate.  He  exhorted  his  friends  in  this  House  and  in  the  country— he 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  229 

expressly  excluded  you,  my  fellow-Democrats,  and  your  constituents — to 
accept  this  alternative.  Do  it,  he  exclaimed,  and  let  the  world  know  that 
this  age  has  produced  heroic  children  upon  whom  Heaven  has  visited  the 
sins  of  their  fathers. 

"  Sir,  I  trust  in  God  the  catastrophe  may  never  come.  I  trust  that 
the  ages,  as  they  roll  on,  will  not  thus  be  called  to  pass  judgment  on  the 
men  of  these  days.  But  if  it  must  be  so>  my  imagination  pictures 
another  scene.  When  your  work  shall  be  accomplished,  when  your 
mission  shall  be  executed,  when  our  Constitution  is  dead,  when  our 
liberties  are  gone,  when  our  Government  is  destroyed,  when  these  States 
— no  longer  held  secure  in  their  proper  position  by  the  power  of  our 
matchless  Constitution,  so  that  they  emulate  in  accordant  action  the 
stars,  as  by  the  divine  decree  they  encircle  in  their  mysterious  courses  the 
footstool  of  the  eternal  throne,  and  extract  from  the  harmony  of  conflict- 
ing elements  the  true  music  of  the  spheres — shall  have  given  place  to 
'  States  discordant,  dissevered,  belligerent,  to  a  land  rent  with  civil  feuds 
and  drenched  in  fraternal  blood,'  history  will  hold  its  dread  inquest,  and 
in  the  presence  of  appalled  humanity  render  judgment  that  base  and 
degenerate  children,  deserting  the  teachings  of  their  fathers,  deserting 
the  teachings  of  the  past,  departing  from  the  ways  of  pleasantness  and 
peace,  rebelling  against  the  wisdom  and  beneficence  of  the  Almighty, 
with  hearts  filled  with  pride  and  souls  stained  with  fanaticism,  struck  the 
matricidal  blow,  and  at  the  same  moment  indignant  and  outraged  Heaven 
wreaked  upon  them  the  just  retribution  of  their  terrible  and  nameless 
crime." 

On  Wednesday,  it  being  apparent  that  the  Democrats 
would  not  vote  for  the  resolution  of  expulsion,  Mr.  Colfax 
accepted  the  amendment  of  Mr.  Broomall,  of  Pennsylvania, 
in  effect  substituting  censure  for  expulsion,  and  upon  this 
he  demanded  the  previous  question,  "  with  the  understand- 
ing that,  although  I  have  the  right,  after  the  previous 
question  shall  be  sustained,  to  close  the  debate,  the  gentle- 
man from  Ohio  shall  have  an  hour  to  reply  to  me."  The 
previous  question  having  been  seconded,  and  the  main 
question  ordered  to  be  now  put,  Mr.  Colfax  addressed  the 
House.  He  began  : 

'  Where  are  we  ? '  was  the  emphatic  question  propounded  by  the 
eloquent  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Pendleton]  on  Tuesday  last.  I 
answer  him,  we  are  in  the  Capitol  of  our  nation.  We  are  in  the  Hall 
where  assembles  the  Congress  of  this  Republic,  which,  thank  God,  in 
spite  of  conspiracy  and  treason,  still  lives  ;  in  spite  of  enemies  open  and 
covert,  within  and  without  our  lines,  with  and  without  arms  in  their 
hands,  still  lives,  and  which,  thanks  to  our  gallant  defenders  in  the  field, 


230  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

will  live  as  long  as  time  shall  last.  '  Where  are  we  ?  '  said  he.  I  will 
answer  him  in  the  language  of  his  colleague  [Mr.  Long],  whose  speech  is 
under  review  : 

"  '  From  the  day  on  which  the  conflict  began  up  to  the  present  hour 
the  Confederate  army  has  not  been  forced  beyond  the  sound  of  their  guns 
from  the  dome  of  the  Capitol  in  which  we  are  assembled.  The  city  of 
Washington  is  to-day,  as  it  has  been  for  three  years,  guarded  by  Federal 
troops  in  all  the  forts  and  fortifications  with  which  it  is  surrounded,  to 
prevent  an  attack  from  the  enemy.' 

"  And  yet,  sir,  while  we  are  thus  placed  '  in  this  fearful  hour  of  the 
country's  peril,'  as  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Long]  says  in  the 
opening  paragraph  of  his  speech  ;  while  the  scales  of  national  life  and 
death  are  trembling  in  the  balance  ;  while  our  veterans  are  in  the  front, 
seeking  to  save  the  life  of  the  country,  and  willing  to  seal  their  fidelity,  if 
need  be,  with  their  hearts'  blood  ;  with  the  enemy  almost  at  the  very  gates 
of  your  Capital — at  such  a  time  as  this  the  gentleman  from  the  Second 
District  of  Ohio  rises  in  his  seat  and  declares  that  our  Government  is 
dead  ;  nay,  more,  that  it  is  destroyed  ;  and  then,  having  thus  consigned  it 
to  death  and  destruction,  he  avows  boldly  that  he  prefers  to  recognize 
the  nationality  of  the  Confederacy  of  the  traitors,  which  has  caused  this 
alleged  death  of  the  Republic,  to  any  other  alternative  that  remains. 

"  It  was  on  that  account  that  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  bring  this  resolution 
before  the  House.  The  gentleman  from  Ohio  would  lower  the  banner  of 
beauty  and  glory  that  floats  above  us  to-day,  betokening  that  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  is  in  session  ;  he  would  pluck  from  the  brilliant 
galaxy  that  glitters  in  its  azure  field  eleven  of  its  stars  ;  he  would  allow  in 
that  diplomatic  gallery  some  Mason,  some  Wigfall,  or  Beauregard  as 
envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  from  a  foreign  nation 
planted  over  the  graves  of  our  murdered  sons  and  brothers,  upon  soil 
that  belongs  to  the  United  States  ;  nay,  more  than  that,  he  would  allow 
the  heights  of  Arlington  to  frown  with  hostile  batteries,  menacing  our 
deliberations  as  we  sit  here  in  the  Capitol. 

"  The  gentleman's  colleague  from  the  Columbus  district  [Mr.  Cox],  on 
Saturday  last,  said  my  course  was  '  extraordinary/  and  that  remark 
seemed  to  be  the  keynote  of  most  of  the  speeches  that  followed  from  that 
side  of  the  House.  But  there  is  a  parallel  and  a  justification.  I  call  the 
gentleman  from  Ohio  to  the  stand.  On  last  Saturday  he  rose  in  his  place 
and  said,  alluding  to  his  colleague  [Mr.  Long]  : 

"  '  He  did  not  speak  for  his  Democratic  colleagues.  They  met  this 
morning  in  caucus,  for  the  purpose  of  disavowing  any  such  sentiments  as 
those  which  are  attributed  to  him.  They  have  authorized  me  so  to  de- 
clare to  this  House,  in  justice  to  them  and  their  constituencies.' 

"  Sir,  it  was  '  extraordinary  '  when  a  speech  had  been  delivered  here 
— nay,  it  was  unprecedented— for  the  colleagues  of  the  gentleman  who 
delivered  it,  of  his  own  political  faith,  to  regard  it  as  their  duty  to  their 
party  to  hold  a  caucus  and  authorize  one  of  their  number  solemnly  to 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  23! 

disavow  and  repudiate  it  on  this  floor.  If  that  can  be  done  for  the  inter- 
ests of  party,  should  I  be  criticised  for  asking  this  House  to  condemn  it 
solemnly  to  save  the  country  and  the  country's  cause  from  its  deleterious 
effects  ?  Is  the  country  to  be  cared  for  less  than  the  interests  of  party  ? 

"  The  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  every  one,  indeed,  who  have 
referred  to  it  at  all,  have  been  kind  enough  to  speak  of  my  impartiality 
as  the  presiding  officer  of  this  House.  I  thank  them  for  this  testimonial, 
which  I  have  endeavored  to  deserve.  But,  at  the  same  time,  most  of  them 
have  expressed  '  regret '  that  I  left  the  Speaker's  Chair  and  came  down 
upon  the  floor  of  the  House.  I  have,  however,  no  regret ;  not  even 
denunciations  of  the  press  or  the  strictures  of  members  upon  this  floor, 
to  which  I  have  listened  in  respectful  silence,  without  interrupting  them, 
have  caused  me  a  moment's  regret.  I  did  it  in  the  performance  of  what 
seemed  to  me  an  imperative  duty,  from  conscientious  conviction,  and 
from  no  personal  unkindness  toward  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Long],  I  have  no  personal  unkindness  toward  him  or  any  human  being 
who  lives  upon  the  earth.  And  if  it  had  been  understood  when,  as  a 
Representative  from  the  Ninth  Congressional  District  of  Indiana,  your 
kindness  and  confidence  placed  me  in  the  Speaker's  Chair,  I  was  to  go 
there  fettered  and  tongue-tied,  and  to  leave  the  people  of  that  district  dis- 
franchised, that  for  all  time  to  come  during  this  Congress  I  should  not 
speak  for  my  country,  I  should  have  thanked  you  for  your  election,  but 
would  have  rejected  and  spurned  the  commission. 

"  I  stand  upon  this  floor  to-day  by  no  '  condescension  '  from  that 
responsible  position.  No,  sir.  In  that  Chair  I  am  the  servant  of  the 
House  to  administer  its  rules,  but  on  this  floor  the  equal  of  any  other 
member — no  more,  no  less. 

"  Duty  is  often  unpleasant,  sometimes  distasteful  and  repulsive  ;  but, 
sir,  the  man  who  will  not  fearlessly  discharge  his  duty  is  not  fit  to  be  in 
public  life.  If  my  brother,  under  the  solemnity  of  the  stringent  oath 
taken  by  members  of  this  Congress  for  the  first  time  since  its  enactment, 
had  made  this  speech  which  now  lies  before  me,  I  would  have  done  the 
same  toward  him  as  toward  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  ;  not  that  I  loved 
him  less,  but  my  country  more.  As  I  stated  in  the  opening  of  this 
debate,  if  the  House  did  not  rebuke  and  condemn  this  sentiment,  you 
would  have  no  right  to  complain  of  foreign  countries  recognizing  this 
rebel  Confederacy,  which  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  was  willing  to  recog- 
nize ;  nay,  more,  if  this  was  the  support  which  you  gave  to  the  soldiers 
whom  you  have  sent  to  the  field,  if  this  was  the  aid  and  comfort  you  gave 
them,  they  would  have  the  right  to  turn  on  us  and  say  :  '  You  called  us 
forth  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  Union,  while  you  in  the  Capitol  allow 
men  to  make  speeches  which  will  be  quoted  with  joy  in  the  Confederate 
Congress,  which  will  strengthen  the  arms  and  sinews  of  the  men  we  have 
to  meet  in  battle  array,  while  they  paralyze  and  discourage  us.'  " 

Briefly  replying  to  several  gentlemen  who  had  spoken 


232  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

against  the  resolution,  he  took  up  Long's  speech,  and 
pointed  out  wherein  it  was  calculated  "  to  give  aid  and 
comfort  to  the  enemies  of  the  United  States,"  the  con- 
stitutional definition  of  treason.  "  That  cause,  steeped  in 
shame  and  scarred  with  crime,  floating  a  flag  black  with 
treason  and  red  with  blood,  the  most  wicked  cause  that 
ever  outraged  the  justice  of  God  or  stained  the  annals  of 
men,  has  had  no  such  vindication  before  as  it  has  now  in 
the  speech  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio." 

In  the  midst  of  his  review  his  hour  expired,  and  a  single 
objection  sufficing  to  prevent  its  extension,  Mr.  Chanler, 
of  New  York,  objected.  Mr.  Long  replied,  reiterating  his 
former  inculpation  of  others  in  mitigation  of  the  censure 
proposed  to  be  visited  on  him.  The  resolution,  which 
declared  Long  "  an  unworthy  member  of  this  House,"  was 
then  adopted  by  nearly  a  strict  party  vote — 80  to  70. 
Harris  had  been  censured  by  a  vote  of  93  to  18  for  indors- 
ing Long,  but  by  the  time  the  vote  was  taken  on  censuring 
Long  himself,  the  Democrats  had  recovered  from  their 
panic. 

Union  papers  had  come  to  their  assistance.  The  New 
York  Times  spoke  of  the  attempt  to  expel  Long  as  "  a  dis- 
grace and  an  outrage."  "  I  say  to  that  paper  and  to  this 
House,"  replied  Mr.  Colfax,  "  that  if  my  course  is  a  dis- 
grace, you  can  fix  the  brand  on  my  forehead,  and  I  will 
wear  it  through  life  ;  nor  do  I  want  any  prouder  epitaph 
on  my  tombstone  than  that  I  dared  fearlessly  to  stand  up 
here  and  do  my  duty  according  to  my  convictions." 
[Great  applause.] 

"  Mr.  Speaker,"  said  Mr.  Colfax,  "  I  desire  that  the 
rules  of  the  House  forbidding  applause  should  be  obeyed. 
Gentlemen  on  the  other  side  have  been  displeased  with  the 
galleries  during  the  last  few  days.  It  is  unseemly  in  this 
House  for  the  galleries  to  indulge  in  applause  or  censure 
of  what  occurs  upon  the  floor  ;  and  I  would  rather  have 
the  *  God  bless  you  '  of  some  poor  soldier's  widow  who  had 
seen  in  her  desolate  home  that  I  stood  up  for  the  cause  for 
which  her  husband  fell,  or  the  '  God  bless  you '  of  the 
soldier  on  his  dangerous  picket  duty  in  front  of  our  army, 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  233 

guarding  the  sleeping  host  with  his  own  life,  than  the 
applause  of  these  galleries,  crowded  as  they  are  with  talent, 
heroism,  and  beauty/' 

He  did  not  fail  to  receive  the  appreciation  he  preferred. 
Private  John  M.  Duddy,  of  Company  H.,  Sixty-first  Penn- 
sylvania Volunteers,  writes  him  : 

"  We  might, indeed,  despair  of  our  country,  despite  our  best  efforts  in 
the  field,  were  it  not  for  the  noble  band  of  patriotic  statesmen  who  have 
given  their  hearts  and  talents  to  her  support.  May  I  be  allowed,  sir, 
without  incurring  the  charge  of  flattery,  but  from  the  grateful  and  sincere 
effusion  of  a  soldier's  heart,  to  place  your  name  at  the  head  of  this  list. 
We  owe  you  a  debt  of  gratitude,  as  does  the  whole  country,  which  it  will 
be  difficult  to  repay.  Deep  down  in  the  heart  of  every  American  soldier 
your  name  will  live  enshrined  for  the  matchless  eloquence  with  which 
you  have  defended  our  noble  Government  from  the  lying  aspersions  that 
rebel  sympathizers  have  sought  to  heap  upon  it.  Your  burning  words  of 
patriotism  encourage  us.  We  feel  that  our  country  is  safe  while  pos- 
sessed of  such  patriots.  We  go  forth  to  the  coming  dread  conflict  re- 
newed, and  should  we  fall,  the  name  of  the  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax  will 
ascend  to  heaven  in  the  prayers  of  thousands  of  dying  soldiers,  that  you 
may  long  be  preserved,  with  increased  wisdom,  to  defend  the  sacred  cause 
of  our  beloved  country.  Pardon  me,  sir,  for  my  prolixity.  My  feelings 
are  too  strong  to  have  allowed  me  to  say  less,  or  even  properly  express 
on  paper  what  I  have  said.  I  have  but  uttered  the  sentiments  of  ninety- 
nine  in  every  hundred  soldiers  in  this  [Potomac]  army." 

He  received  many  letters  of  similar  tenor  from  the 
soldiers  in  the  different  armies.  "  I  had  counted  the  cost/' 
he  said,  "  and  was  willing  to  be  made  the  target  of  attack 
for  the  sake  of  my  country,  and  for  the  sake  of  thousands 
of  my  constituents,  now  the  target  of  attack  on  the  battle- 
field." It  would  have  been  exceedingly  strange  if  the 
soldiers  had  not  appreciated  it.  His  action  was  generally 
sustained  and  commended  by  the  genuine  Union  men  and 
by  the  Union  press.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  ques- 
tion raised,  there  was  no  lack  of  Democratic  precedent. 
Democratic  Houses  had  censured  freedom  of  debate  from 
Adams  to  Giddings  and  Sumner,  and  always  when  exer- 
cised in  behalf  of  justice  and  liberty,  and  in  time  of  peace. 
Mr.  Colfax  proposed  to  expel  for  the  utterance  of  treason 
in  the  House  under  cover  of  freedom  of  debate,  in  a  time 
of  imminent  national  peril.  As  to  its  wisdom,  considered 


234  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

practically,  it  cowed  the  open  and  outrageous  expression 
of  treasonable  sentiments  and  electrified  Union  men,  citizen 
and  soldier,  as  Mr.  Elaine's  action  in  the  House  twelve 
years  later  (January,  1876)  electrified  Republicans.1 

On  the  7th  day  of  May,  1864,  the  citizens  of  Indiana 
residing  in  Washington,  with  their  wives  and  daughters, 
met  at  the  Speaker's  house  and  presented  him  with  a 
magnificent  set  of  silver,  largely  on  account  of  his  bearing 
on  this  occasion.  On  the  salver  was  engraved  : 

"  Presented  to  Schuyler  Colfax,  Speaker  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Con- 
gress, now  and  for  many  years  a  faithful  Representative  of  the  Ninth 
Congressional  District  of  Indiana,  eminent  in  the  councils  of  his  country, 
her  able  and  patriotic  defender,  and  the  soldier's  friend.  From  citizens 
of  his  own  State,  who  recognize  in  him  all  that  is  generous  and  just,  and 
unwavering  devotion  to  principle  and  duty,  May  7th,  1864." 

The  Hon.  Hugh  McCulloch,  of  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment, made  the  presentation  speech,  closing  thus  :  "  Dur- 
ing the  war  we  shall  hear  your  voice  in  the  halls  of  legis- 
lation and  before  the  people,  rebuking  treason,  strengthen- 
ing the  faint-hearted  and  inspiriting  the  loyal  at  home,  and 
sending  words  of  cheer  to  our  gallant  soldiers  in  the  field  ; 
and  when  peace  is  restored  to  us  you  will  be,  what  you 
have  been  in  the  past,  a  tribune  of  the  people,  a  champion 
of  popular  rights  and  of  constitutional  liberty." 

The  Speaker  responded,  thanking  them  very  heartily, 
and  then  he  allowed  his  words  to  follow  his  thoughts  and 
heart  out  to  the  Wilderness,  where  hundreds  of  good 
men  were  falling  every  hour.8  "  All  the  long  hours  of 

1.  In  his  attack  on  the  Democratic  proposition  to  amnesty  all  the  ex-rebels,  inclusive 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis,  still  under  ban  of  political  disability. 

2.  Of  those  days  Mr.  Garfield  said  in  Toledo,  in  1866  :   "  I  remember  one  occasion, 
after  Grant  went  into  the  darkness  of  the  Spottsylvania  Wilderness,  when  for  six  mortal 
days  the  telegraph  wires  were  cut  off  behind  him,  and  for  six  terrible  days  the  nation 
was  on  its  knees,  praying  to  the  God  of  battles  for  victory,  and  mothers  were  quaking 
for  fear  the  loved  ones  might  be  lost.    At  last,  after  six  days  of  agony,  a  messenger 
entered  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  hurried  up  to  the  Speaker's  desk  with 
a  despatch  in  his  hand  that  our  forces  had  captured  six  thousand  rebels  and  sixty  can- 
non ;  and  with  an  impulse  that  no  one  could  resist,  every  loyal  member  sprang  to  his 
feet.    Men  shed  tears  like  children,  and  the  galleries  leaped  to  their  feet  and  shouted 
glory  and  honor  and  joy !     But  those  seventy  men  sat  across  the  aisle,  without  one 
word  of  applause  or  one  look  of  exultation."    These  were  the  seventy  men  who  de- 
fended Mr.  Long. 

"After  the  Union  army  had  been  whipped,"  ran  a  story  attributed  to  Mr.  Elaine, 
"two  old  Cops  would  meet  to  talk  about  it    One  would  say  to  the  other  that  it  was  very 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  235 

this  day,  and  through  the  twilight  into  night,  my  heart 
has  been  with  our  brave  soldiers  at  the  front.  To-night 
they  may  be  gathered  round  their  camp-fires  ;  they  may  be 
in  the  sharp  conflict,  pursuing  or  retreating  ;  they  may  be 
lying  dead  on  the  field.  May  Providence  '  cover  their 
heads  '  in  the  day  of  battle,  and  give  them  victory  which 
shall  turn  back  the  tide  of  rebel  success  and  restore  peace 
and  unity  to  a  distracted  land.  I  feel  an  honorable  pride  in 
your  remark  that  my  most  critical  friends  have  seen  no  act 
of  my  life  which  they  could  wish  had  been  unperformed. 
But  more  gratifying  is  the  title  of  '  Soldier's  Friend  '  you 
have  inscribed  on  the  plate.  I  value  it  more  than  honors 
or  offices,  and  would  rather  be  bound  to  their  hearts  and 
yours  '  with  hooks  of  steel,'  as  Shakespeare  writes,  or, 
rather,  with  the  unseen  but  no  less  potential  heartstrings 
of  affection,  than  to  enjoy  any  earthly  distinction  or  fame.  " 
A  dinner  and  social  festivities  concluded  the  evening. 
June  26th,  he  writes  his  mother  : 

"  The  Squire  has  been  writing  you  this  morning.  I  let  him  read 
your  letter  yesterday,  and  he  handed  it  back,  saying  :  '  What  a  good  let- 
ter your  mother  writes  ! '  Quite  singularly,  while  all  of  us  feel  rather 
depressed  at  the  military  and  financial  '  situation,'  he  is  sanguine,  hopeful, 
enthusiastic  ;  says  we  can  raise  a  million  more  men  '  just  as  easy  ! '  The 
weather  has  been  terribly  hot — ninety  degrees  in  the  Hall — and  exciting 
sessions,  keeping  me  very  busy  in  trying  to  preserve  order.  The  per- 
spiration  poured  off  me  in  streams,  and  once  I  had  a  slight  premonition 
of  vertigo  ;  but  as  it  would  not  do  to  faint  in  the  Chair,  as  it  would  inter- 
rupt business  and  make  a  sensation,  I  bathed  my  forehead  in  cool  water, 
and  it  passed  off.  I  am  quite  well  considering  the  labor,  but  am  anxious 
for  adjournment  and  home.  Last  evening  it  was  so  sultry  (I  had  no 
sleep  the  night  before,  with  the  hot  hours  and  the  mosquitoes)  I  came  up 
to  the  Capitol  as  soon  as  dinner  was  over,  and  as  there  was  no  night  ses- 
sion worked  in  my  little  den  down-stairs  till  eleven,  and  then  lay  down 
on  a  sofa  in  the  Speaker's  room,  which  was  cool,  and  had  a  glorious 
night's  sleep  in  the  Capitol  all  by  myself." 

This  exhibits  the  man  beneath  the  official.  The  "  den" 
he  speaks  of  was  a  little  closet  in  a  dark  entry  under  the 
hall  hard  by  a  private  staircase.  The  glazed  door,  one  of 

sad.    The  other  would  reply,  very  sorrowfully,  that  it  was  indeed  a  very  sad  business. 
Then  they  would  both  burst  out  laughing  and  go  round  the  corner  and  take  a  drink  for 


236  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

the  few  in  the  Capitol  not  marked,  was  screened  by  green 
baize.  Inside  a  piece  of  carpet  partly  covered  the  floor. 
The  single  window  was  cheaply  screened.  There  was 
room  for  a  table,  a  lounge,  and  two  or  three  chairs.  If  the 
page  at  the  door  knew  the  caller,  he  could  pass  in  without 
a  card.  Here  he  did  his  work.  Unless  hid  in  some  such 
place,  his  time  would  have  run  entirely  to  waste,  so  many 
people  wanted  to  see  him.  Since  he  found  and  appropri- 
ated this  little  hole-in-the-wall,  probably  as  much  of  the  real 
business  of  governing  has  been  done  in  it,  successive  Speak- 
ers having  used  it,  as  in  any  other  room  in  the  country. 

In  accordance  with  a  previously  expressed  determina- 
tion, he  had  published  a  card  declining  a  renomination, 
but  the  people  of  his  district  would  not  have  it  so,  and  he 
had  to  stand  for  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress.1  It  was  the 
most  important  election  ever  contested  in  this  or  any 
country.  In  perhaps  the  darkest  hour  of  the  war,  with 
the  popular  branch  of  Congress  trembling  in  the  balance 
between  them  and  their  political  foes,  the  Union  men  had 
unconditionally  committed  themselves  to  the  overthrow  of 
slavery,  that  golden  calf  of  American  politics,  by  the  issue 
of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  To  give  it  effect,  they 
must  destroy  the  Confederate  armies  and  carry  a  Con- 
stitutional Amendment  abolishing  slavery,  which  required 
a  two-thirds  vote  of  Congress  to  propose  and  three  fourths 
of  the  States  to  ratify.  Two  years  had  passed,  the  South- 
ern people  were  united,  and  their  armies  still  presented  a 
brazen  front,  while  nearly  half  of  the  Northern  voters  were 
in  full  sympathy  with  them,  and  the  military  outlook  was 
as  gloomy  as  ever. 

1.  To  the  Hon.  Horace  P.  Biddle  he  writes,  15th  April,  1864  :  "  Prom  the  saddening 
death  of  my  wife  up  to  a  recent  period,  I  had  determined,  as  I  supposed  fixedly,  not  to 
be  again  a  candidate,  and  so  said  and  wrote  to  all  who  alluded  to  it.  When,  however, 
at  the  State  Convention,  the  delegates  from  the  Ninth  District  unanimously  expressed 
their  desire  that  I  should  again  be  a  candidate,  and  many  who  were  present  wrote  me 
urgently  on  the  subject,  I  reflected  on  it  for  several  weeks  in  the  light  of  duty,  and 
finally,  yielding  to  the  appeals  and  the  expressed  wishes  of  so  many  fellow-members  and 
of  the  President,  who  insisted  that  this  was  not  the  time  for  me  to  retire,  I  wrote  last 
month  the  card  that  has  been  published  in  the  papers.  In  view  of  the  numerous 
letters,  resolutions  of  county  committees,  and  appeals  from  those  I  have  supposed 
would  be  candidates,  which  I  have  received,  I  could  not,  in  justice  to  them,  refuse  to 
be  a  candidate  once  more,  as  I  now  am." 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  237 

Our  successes  in  the  field  were  seemingly  in  inverse 
ratio  to  our  sacrifices,  and  these  were  only  less  than  in- 
finite. The  early  laurels  of  Rosecrans  had  withered  at 
Chickamauga,  leaving  the  Union  army  beleaguered  at  Chat- 
tanooga. After  the  capture  of  Vicksburg,  freeing  the  Mis- 
sissippi, Grant  had  repaired  to  Chattanooga  and  driven 
the  enemy  from  our  front  in  a  great  battle.  His  splendid 
career  from  Donelson  to  Vicksburg  and  Chattanooga  con- 
vinced the  people  that  he  was  the  man  for  whom  they  had 
long  been  praying. 

The  Eastern  army  had  never  struck  Lee  in  Virginia  but 
to  recoil  for  repairs,  and  this  experience,  repeated  again 
and  again,  had  made  all  but  the  stoutest-hearted  doubtful 
of  ultimate  victory.  When  Grant  was  made  Lieutenant- 
General,  and  fixed  his  headquarters  with  General  Meade, 
the  people  of  Washington  and  the  loyal  North  experienced 
as  much  relief  as  they  would  if  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
had  been  doubled  in  numbers.  When,  with  his  magnificent 
army,  he  plunged  into  the  Wilderness,  withstood  Lee's 
fiercest 'onslaught  for  three  days,  and  instead  of  recrossing 
the  Rapidan  for  repairs,  moved  out  by  the  left  flank  and 
renewed  the  combat  at  Spottsylvania  Court  House,  swoop- 
ing up  sixty  cannon  and  six  thousand  prisoners  one  morn- 
ing, millions  in  the  North  breathed  freely  for  the  first  time 
since  the  first  Bull  Run. 

But  when  he  had  forced  Lee  back  into  the  intrenchments 
of  Richmond,  and  established  a  fortified  line  in  their  front 
extending  to  Petersburg,  along  which  there  were  attack 
and  repulse  at  various  points  and  with  varying  success, 
and  when  Lee  seemed  able  to  hold  his  own,  to  protect  his 
railroad  communications  with  the  far  South,  give  General 
Sheridan  occupation  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  and  even  to 
seriously  threaten  Washington,  the  new-fledged  hopes  of 
the  Northern  people  sank  almost  lower  than  ever.  In  the 
West  General  William  Tecumseh  Sherman  had  concen- 
trated the  Union  armies  and  driven  the  enemy  from  Chat- 
tanooga to  Atlanta  in  an  all  but  continuous  fight  of  ninety 
days.  There  he  was  still  confronted  by  Hood,  and,  it 
seemed,  to  better  advantage  than  farther  north.  The 


238  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

National  Democratic  Convention  saw  nothing  in  the  military 
prospect  to  deter  it  from  pronouncing  the  war  a  failure 
and  demanding  the  opening  of  negotiations  for  peace.  To 
the  ordinary  observer  the  military  situation  had  not  mate- 
rially improved  in  October  and  November.  Grant  and 
Lee  were  at  most  holding  each  other  at  bay.  Sherman 
had  shattered  General  Hood's  forces  about  Atlanta  and 
struck  for  the  sea,  but  Hood  was  able  to  appear  with  about 
his  old  strength  before  Nashville. 

At  the  same  time  the  President  called  for  three  hundred 
thousand  men  nearly  every  other  month,  and  from  the 
depreciation  of  the  currency,  the  Government  was  borrow- 
ing money  at  fifty  to  sixty  cents  on  the  dollar  and  pouring 
it  out  like  water. 

July  22d,  Colfax  writes  his  mother  : 

"  I  reached  home  this  morning  at  1.30,  having  been  to  La  Porte, 
Plymouth,  Argos,  Rochester,  Perrysburg,  Mexico,  and  Peru,  during  my 
three  days'  absence,  and  seen  and  tried  to  stir  up  our  friends  in  each. 
They  are  all  listless  and  the  Cops  active.  Turpie  you  have  heard  is 
nominated  for  Congress,  and  they  intend  to  make  a  bitter  fight  on  me 
Well,  some  of  these  days  I  may  find  my  ideal  of  quiet  and  happiness  as 
an  offset  to  this  life  of  unrest  and  excitement.  But  the  honest  truth  is  I 
cannot  work  myself  up  to  enthusiasm  this  year.  I  was  glad  to  get  the 
Squire's  hopeful  letter,  and  read  part  of  it  to  all  the  desponding  circles  at 
La  Porte  and  Peru.1  Isn't  it  odd  that  he  should  be  the  sanguine  one  in- 
stead of  me  ?" 

1.  Squire  Matthews  wrote  from  Terre  Conpee,  July  17th,  that  he  fonnd  a  very  good 
and  healthy  sentiment  prevailing,  "although,  like  yourself,  some  are  fearful  that  we 
ehall  never  take  Richmond,  that  the  people  will  weary  of  the  war,  and  we  be  beaten 
at  the  fall  elections.  Things  don't  look  so  to  me.  The  ladies  over  the  Prairie  had  a 
festival  [for  the  benefit  of  the  soldiers]  yesterday  afternoon,  and  although  not  largely 
attended,  by  reason  of  the  pressure  on  farmers  to  get  in  their  grain,  yet  they  received 
over,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  clear  profit  from  their  little  picnic,  and  I  was 
gratified  to  see  the  bitterest  Copperheads  in  the  township  taking  a  leading  part.  If  it 
is  all  hypocrisy,  it  shows  that  public  sentiment  is  so  strong  in  favor  of  sustaining  our 
soldiers  that  they  dare  not  make  a  show  of  opposition.  The  reason  of  this  state  of  feel- 
ing is  in  consequence  of  Democrats  in  the  army,  who  exercise  a  large  influence  over 
their  friends  and  relatives  at  home.  Now,  if  it  were  possible  to  get  a  furlough  for  sev- 
eral of  our  regiments  and  scatter  them  through  the  district,  besides  their  own  vote  their 
moral  force  would  be  equal  to  double  their  vote. 

"  As  an  example,  Henry  Deacon,  Elias's  [Elias  George  Matthews,  Squire  Matthews's 
son]  particular  friend,  who  left  here  a  strong  Democrat,  writes  Elias  to  '  tell  his  friends, 
and  Copperheads  in  particular,  that  he  is  for  Lincoln,  and  claims  to  be  a  Democrat 
still ;  that  he  will  meet  any  or  all  of  them  in  the  schoolhouse  or  grove  and  discuss 
the  matter,  or  with  the  pen ;  that  the  army  are  just  as  anxious  to  whip  Copperheads 
behind  them  as  traitors  before  them.1  This  is  the  universal  feeling  in  the  army,  and 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  239 

But  however  gloomy  the  prospect,  the  Union  men  could 
not  falter.  The  Disunionists  had  nominated  General 
McClellan  for  the  Presidency  on  a  peace  platform,  the 
Unionists  had  renominated  Lincoln  on  his  own  platform. 
"  There  is  a  prevailing  idea  among  the  people,"  Mr.  Tyner 
had  written  Mr.  Colfax  in  February,  "  that  the  Lord  has 
chosen  Old  Abe  to  lead  them  out  of  the  wilderness  of  sor- 
row and  affliction.  With  all  the  enthusiasm  of  religious 
followers,  they  have  determined  to  follow  him  as  the  '  cloud 
by  day  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night.'  "  Had  the  Admin- 
istration party  been  defeated,  instead  of  Union,  liberty,  and 
peace,  we  should  now  have  peace,  if  at  all,  only  at  the  cost 
of  disunion  and  slavery.  Never  hung  such  vast  and  preg- 
nant issues  on  the  ballots  dropped  in  the  voting  urns,  and 
it  is  impossible  not  to  admire  the  courage  and  stanchness 
of  the  war  party,  rising  to  absolute  heroism,  although  we 
are  still  too  near  those  times  to  see  what  they  did  in  its 
true  proportions. 

Mr.  Colfax  opened  his  canvass  at  Peru  August  2oth. 
His  speech,  the  first  one  of  the  canvass  by  a  man  of 
national  reputation,  was  a  trumpet-call  to  honor  and  duty. 
It  was  stenographically  reported  for  the  Cincinnati  and 
Chicago  papers,  and  is  doubtless  the  earliest  one  of  his 

I  shall  write  to  Defrees  to-day  and  tell  him  inasmuch  as  our  soldiers  cannot  vote  [in 
the  field],  some  arrangement  must  he  made  by  which  a  great  numher  of  them  may  be 
permitted  to  return  on  furlough.  I  think  Old  Abe  will  be  able  to  see  the  point  as 
well  as  any  one  else.  Before  the  election  comes  off,  my  impression  is,  they  can  be  spared 
without  serious  jeopardy  to  the  interest  of  the  country. 

"My  confidence  in  the  speedy  overthrow  of  the  Rebellion  is  not  the  least  impaired 
by  the  apparently  unfavorable  aspect  at  the  present  time.  In  fact,  I  look  upon  the 
last  raid  [on  Washington]  as  a  desperate  attempt  to  relieve  themselves  from  the  death- 
grasp  which  Grant  has  fastened  upon  the  throat  of  the  Confederacy — it  will  end  in  dis- 
appointment and  defeat/'1 

A  month  later  Colfax  had  recovered  his  hopefulness.  The  Hon.  Henry  J.  Raymond 
writes  him,  September  23d:  "I  have  just  received  yours  of  the  20th.  I  am  glad  you 
are  eo  hopeful.  You  have  everything  to  fight  against,  and,  like  all  the  rest  of  us,  get 
no  help  from  the  Administration.  I  have  spent  the  best  part  of  four  weeks  at  Wash- 
ington, trying  to  get  the  Government  to  help  elect  itself,  in  the  matters  you  mention 
and  others,  but  to  no  purpose.  However,  it  is  no  use  growling.  We  must  put  the 
thing  through.  You  must  be  elected  if  it  is  a  possible  thing.  Defrees  will  give  you  five 
hundred  dollars  on  our  account  for  your  own  disbursement  if  you  desire  it ;  and  if 
you  want  five  hiindred  dollars  more  for  the  final  pull  write  me  at  once,  or  draw  on  me 
for  it,  and  you  shall  have  it.  Your  '  scalp '  shan't  adorn  the  rebel  wigwam  if  we  can 
help  it.  I  write  in  haste.  Everything  looks  well.  We  shall  have  Richmond  by  the 
date  of  your  election,  /  think.  If  we  do,  we  can  dismiss  all  apprehension  about  the 
result." 


240  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

hundreds  of  political  speeches  that  is  on  record.     It  would 
make  forty  pages  of  this  book. 

At  a  dinner  in  his  honor  in  Philadelphia  after  the  elec- 
tion, he  said  : 

"  We  won  the  victory  in  Indiana  with  but  one  watchword — '  Stand  by 
the  Government  in  its  hour  of  trial.1  Our  opponents  had  sufficient  arms 
to  crush  out  any  opposition  in  other  times.  We  had  but  one  motto — De- 
votion to  our  land.  They  held  up  high  taxes,  the  draft,  and  everything 
to  influence  the  unthinking  mind.  We  had  but  one  weapon— our  Country. 
It  is  well  for  us  to  consider  what  has  been  decided  by  this  great  manifes- 
tation of  the  popular  will.  Abraham  Lincoln  is  to  remain  in  the  Presi- 
dential chair  till  every  rebel  bows  in  allegiance  to  the  Union.  It  decides 
that  the  war  is  not  a  failure,  and  that  it  shall  be  carried  on  until  our  flag 
floats  over  our  entire  country.  It  decides  the  fate  of  rebellion,  secession, 
and  slavery.  We  shall  declare  in  Congress,  week  after  next,  that  here- 
after slavery  shall  be  impossible  in  the  American  Union.  Within  eleven 
votes,  it  was  decided  at  the  last  session.  Forty-one  votes  we  have  gained 
at  the  late  election,  and  that  more  than  assures  it." 

Mr.  Colfax  missed  hardly  a  secular  day  in  the  canvass, 
speaking  all  over  the  district  and  in  several  States  besides 
his  own.  In  their  platform  the  Democrats  of  the  Ninth 
District  charged  him  with  having  endeavored  to  suppress 
free  discussion  in  Congress,  with  supporting  the  suspen- 
sion of  the  habeas  corpus,  the  arbitrary  arrest  of  unoffending 
citizens,  the  emancipation  and  arming  of  the  slaves,  and 
the  confiscation  of  rebel  property — all  involving  the  draft 
of  army  after  army  and  no  end  of  taxes.  Truly  a  weighty 
arraignment ! 

He  defended  the  war  policy  of  his  party,  in  whole  and 
in  part,  with  all  the  vigor  he  possessed  ;  proved  from  the 
documents  that  the  war  was  forced  on  the  North  ;  declared 
that  the  Union  armies  had  shut  the  rebels  up  between 
Richmond  and  Atlanta,  and  would  have  beaten  them  alto- 
gether long  ago  but  for  division  at  home.  "  We  all  long 
for  peace,"  said  he,  "  and  none  more  so  than  the  Adminis- 
tration and  its  supporters.  I  am  opposed  to  all  wars  ex- 
cept defensive  wars,  and  I  would  not  have  asked  any  father 
here  to  give  his  son  to  the  present  war  if  it  had  not  been  a 
war  to  save  a  great  nation  from  death,  with  all  its  glorious 
past  and  still  brighter  future."  Everything  indicated,  he 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  241 

said,  that  the  bearers  of  the  Niagara  peace  propositions 
were  spies.  The  war  was  not  waged  to  destroy  slavery 
except  as  it  was  one  of  the  strongest  resources  of  the  rebels. 
The  war  was  denounced  as  bitterly  before  as  after  the 
Proclamation  of  Freedom. 

"  They  say  they  are  for  the  Union  as  it  was.  I,  too, 
am  for  the  Union  as  it  was.  I  will  not  consent  that  a 
single  star  shall  be  plucked  from  the  azure  blue  of  our 
national  heavens.  If  you  want  any  of  them  plucked  out, 
and  our  flag  trampled  under  foot,  you  should  elect  some 
other  man  for  your  Representative,  for  I  never — no,  never, 
shall  consent  to  it.  A  Union  as  it  was  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  Rebellion,  with  every  star  on  our  flag  representing  a 
State,  and  with  the  right  of  free  speech  in  fact,  and  not 
that  miserable  pretence — lawless  speech  in  favor  of  treason 
— I  am  in  favor  of  to  the  last  beat  of  my  heart.  There  is 
no  cause  for  despair.  You  may  feel  dispirited,  but  as  for 
me,  God  helping  me,  I  will  never  consent  to  the  destruc- 
tion or  disintegration  of  this  Union.  If  we  cannot  live  in 
peace  as  one  nation,  we  cannot  as  two  ;  and  when  you 
acknowledge  the  Confederacy  you  acknowledge  the  right 
of  secession,  and  there  will  be  no  end  to  division.  It  will 
be  like  picking  the  stones  from  under  this  building,  which 
would  cause  it  to  fall  into  a  shapeless  mass  of  ruins." 

Assuming  then  the  offensive,  he  charged  that  while 
"  our  opponents  are  crying  '  Peace  ! '  '  Peace  !  '  they  have 
secretly  organized  throughout  the  North-west  to  inaugu- 
rate a  universal  neighborhood  war.  And  I  tell  you  to-day 
that  had  it  not  been  for  the  organization  of  Union  Leagues 
for  counsel  and  concert  in  action,  they  would  long  ago 
have  risen  against  us.  What  was  it  that  enabled  the  South 
to  precipitate  this  Rebellion  ?  It  was  the  Order  of  the 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle.  The  members  of  that  Order 
are  as  much  the  sworn  soldiers  of  Jeff  Davis  as  those  in 
uniform  and  following  the  flag  of  the  traitorous  Con- 
federacy." He  demonstrated  from  statistics  of  the  rapid 
growth  of  our  population  and  wealth  that  there  was  noth- 
ing in  the  increasing  national  debt  to  be  alarmed  about. 
His  peroration  ran  as  follows  : 


242  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

14  We  have  but  one  path  of  duty  in  which  to  walk.  It  is  to  press  on 
until  every  Malakoff  in  the  South  shall  fall,  and  every  suffering  Lucknow 
shall  hear  the  slogan  of  deliverance.  If  you  are  willing  to  yield,  you  are 
not  worthy  of  those  who  have  gone  forth  from  homes  happy  with  the 
sunlight  of  lo\4e,  from  wives  and  children  precious  to  them  as  the  apple 
of  their  eye,  to  lay  down  their  lives  for  you.  If  you  are  willing  that  the 
graves  of  the  loved  and  lost  shall,  until  the  morning  of  the  resurrection, 
be  under  a  rebellious  flag  and  on  hostile  soil,  where  no  friend  can  shed  a 
tear  of  sympathy  unless  by  permission  of  Jeff  Davis,  you  are  not  worthy 
of  the  Revolutionary  fathers  who  bequeathed  to  us  the  most  priceless 
liberty  that  was  ever  bequeathed  from  sire  to  son.  I  know  you  will  not 
do  it.  Whether  travelling  in  the  valley  of  humiliation  and  disaster,  or 
keeping  my  eye  fixed  on  the  heavens,  I  believe  that  God  reigns.  I  can- 
not believe  His  blessings  will  fall  on  the  Confederacy.  God's  ways  are 
sometimes  dark,  but  '  sooner  or  later  they  touch  the  shining  hills  of  day.' 
.  .  .  Our  domain  is  shaped  by  the  geography  of  the  continent  ;  it  is 
bolted  and  riveted  by  mountain,  river,  valley,  and  plain.  It  is  to  be  one 
country  if  we  are  faithful  to  our  fathers'  trust  ;  with  one  Constitution  if 
we  are  faithful  to  the  sainted  dead  ;  one  destiny  if  we  are  faithful  to  our 
gallant  soldiers  now  manfully  beating  back  the  enemy.  I  appeal  to  you 
so  to  act  and  so  to  vote  that  your  conduct  shall  thrill  the  hearts  of  your 
soldiers,  giving  them  fresh  resolution  to  press  on  in  the  path  they  now  so 
nobly  tread,  fresh  heroism  in  their  conflicts  with  the  enemy.  Show  them 
that  you  are  guarding  their  sacred  cause,  and  that  as  for  you  and  your 
children  you  are  determined  that  there  shall  be  but  one  nation,  one  flag, 
one  Constitution  ;  then  the  historic  page  of  the  future  will  shine  with  a 
brighter  glory  as  it  records  the  history  of  this  war,  standing  side  by  side 
with  that  great  struggle  out  of  which  the  nation  was  born." 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THIRTY-EIGHTH    CONGRESS  (CONTINUED). 
1863-1865. 

CONGRESS  PROPOSES  CONSTITUTIONAL  AMENDMENT  ABOLISHING  SLAVERY. 
— COLLAPSE  OF  THE  REBELLION. — ASSASSINATION  OF  LINCOLN. — 
COLFAX  AS  SPEAKER. — DISPOSES  OF  HIS  INTEREST  IN  THE  Register. 
— VISITS  LINCOLN  AND  RECEIVES  HIS  LAST  Gooo-Bv. — His  TRIB- 
UTE TO  LINCOLN. — PUBLIC  INTEREST  IN  HIS  OVERLAND  JOURNEY. — 
His  STORY  OF  THE  TRIP. — His  RECEPTION,  BEARING,  SPEECHES, 
ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  AND  PEN-PICTURE,  BY  SAM  BOWLES. — 
ANXIETY  IN  THE  COUNTRY  WITH  RESPECT  TO  PRESIDENT  JOHN- 
SON'S COURSE. — "ACROSS  THE  CONTINENT"  LECTURE. — THE  PA- 
CIFIC RAILROAD. 

THE  people  voted  right.  Many  Democrats  condemned 
the  policy  of  the  Disunion  faction  that  had  controlled  their 
National  Convention.  The  war  had  proved  an  efficient 
though  a  terrible  educator.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of 
men  had  been  at  the  front,  and  the  front  was  a  good  place 
to  cure  what  was  called  conservatism.  Men  capable  of 
learning  saw  that  there  was  but  one  way  to  the  end, 
whether  near  or  far,  and  that  no  chance  must  be  left  of 
their  ever  having  to  travel  the  dreadful  road  again.  Hap- 
pily, there  were  enough  such  to  save  the  day.  To  her 
eternal  glory,  Indiana  gave  the  Union  ticket  20,000 
majority.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  re-elected  President,  and 
a  Lincoln  House  was  returned.  Colfax  beat  Turpie  by 
1680  in  a  total  poll  of  31,636.  Hon.  James  G.  Elaine 
writes  him  2oth  October  : 

"  Please  accept  my  most  cordial  and  sincere  congratulations  upon  your 
triumphant  election  to  the  post  you  have  so  long  honored.  Your  return 
insures  to  us  an  able  and  impartial  Speaker  for  the  Thirty-Ninth  Con- 
gress unless  you  should  meanwhile  be  invited  to  '  go  up  higher,'  though 
in  my  estimation  a  Cabinet  position  is  riot  higher  than  the  Speakership  of 


244  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

the  House.  The  latter  is  the  better  place  for  achieving  a  reputation  that 
is  at  once  permanent  and  grateful.  .  .  .  The  Speakership  requires  far 
more  absolute  ability  than  a  Cabinet  portfolio.  In  the  latter  a  man  may 
shirk  duty  and  conceal  deficiencies.  In  the  former  that  is  impossible.  A 
hundred  watchful  eyes  at  once  detect  and  expose  the  slightest  shortcom- 
ing. But  not  one  fault,  either  of  head  or  heart,  has  yet  been  laid  at  your 
door  as  presiding  officer.  My  earnest  desire  to  have  you  preside  over 
the  next  House  induces  me  to  write  thus  freely." 

The  result  of  the  election  morally  ended  the  struggle. 
True,  the  year  of  battles  went  on  to  its  bloody  close,  but 
no  one  longer  doubted  how  it  would  close.  The  vast  re- 
sources of  the  North  were  at  last  being  used,  thanks 
mainly  to  the  pluck  of  Elihu  B.  Washburne,  in  getting  at 
the  head  of  the  Union  armies  a  commanding  general 
worthy  of  them.  The  citizen-soldiers  had  become  veterans, 
and  the  steady  waste  of  battle  and  disease  was  more  than 
made  good  by  a  steady  stream  of  recruits.  Everywhere 
the  wasted  forces  of  the  Confederacy  were  outnumbered, 
as  they  ought  to  have  been  from  the  very  first.  December 
was  notable  for  the  capture  of  Savannah,  taken  in  rear  by 
General  Sherman's  advance  from  Atlanta  ;  the  masterly 
overthrow  of  Hood  before  Nashville  by  General  George 
H.  Thomas,  a  draft  of  three  hundred  thousand  men,  and 
the  meeting  of  Congress. 

In  his  message  to  Congress,  the  President  recommended 
the  adoption  by  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Joint 
Resolution  proposing  to  the  States  a  Constitutional 
Amendment  abolishing  slavery.  This  had  been  reported 
from  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  Senate  by  Senator 
Trumbull,  of  Illinois,  on  the  loth  of  February,  1864,  and 
adopted  by  the  Senate,  38  to  6,  April  8th.  Coming  up  in 
the  House  June  i$th,  it  failed  for  want  of  a  two-thirds 
vote.  "  Although  the  present  is  the  same  Congress,"  said 
the  President,  "  and  nearly  the  same  members,  and  with- 
out questioning  the  wisdom  or  patriotism  of  those  who 
stood  in  opposition  [at  the  preceding  session],  I  venture  to 
recommend  the  reconsideration  and  passage  of  the  measure 
at  the  present  session."  The  President  thought  the  inter- 
vening election  worthy  of  some  deference  in  such  a  crisis, 
although  it  did  not  change  the  question.  The  election 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  245 

made  it  certain  that  the  amendment  would  be  proposed  to 
the  States  by  the  next  Congress,  and  that  being  so,  might 
we  not  all  agree  that  the  sooner  it  was  proposed  the  better  ? 
On  the  3ist  of  January,  1865,  Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio,  called 
up  his  motion  of  the  i5th  of  June  previous  to  reconsider. 
A  motion  to  lay  the  motion  to  reconsider  on  the  table  was 
voted  down,  ui  to  57,  14  not  voting.  The  motion  to  re- 
consider was  then  agreed  to,  112  to  57,  13  not  voting,  and 
the  Joint  Resolution  passed,  119  to  56,  8  not  voting,  10 
Democrats  voting  aye.  The  Speaker  said  :  "  The  con- 
stitutional majority  of  two  thirds  having  voted  in  the 
affirmative,  the  Joint  Resolution  is  passed."  The  Globe 
said  : 

"  The  announcement  was  received  by  the  House  and  the  spectators 
with  an  outburst  of  enthusiasm.  The  members  on  the  Republican  side 
of  the  House  instantly  sprang  to  their  feet,  and,  regardless  of  parliamen- 
tary rules,  applauded  with  cheers  and  clapping  of  hands.  The  example 
was  followed  by  the  male  spectators  in  the  galleries,  which  were  crowded 
to  excess,  who  waved  their  hats  and  cheered  loud  and  long  ;  while 'the 
ladies,  hundreds  of  whom  were  present,  rose  in  their  seats  and  waved 
their  handkerchiefs,  participating  in  and  adding  to  the  general  excitement 
and  intense  interest  of  the  scene.  This  lasted  for  several  minutes." 

It  was  the  greatest  day  the  House  had  ever  seen,  nor  is 
it  likely  ever  to  see  a  greater. 

The  Speaker  voted  Aye  as  member  from  his  district, 
and  signed  the  Joint  Resolution,  when  enrolled,  as  Speaker 
of  the  House.  Fourteen  years  before,  among  a  mere 
handful  of  kindred  spirits  in  the  Constitutional  Convention 
of  his  State,  he  had  said  :  "  Wherever,  within  my  sphere, 
be  it  narrow  or  wide,  oppression  treads  its  iron  heel  on 
human  rights,  I  will  raise  my  voice  in  earnest  protest." 
He  had  kept  his  word,  and  well  earned  his  share  in  the 
triumph.1 

1.  One  day  in  August,  1870,  he  spent  an  hour  in  his  parlor  contemplating  the  familiar 
faces  in  Powell's  engraving  of  the  historical  group  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  who 
voted  this  resolution,  and  the  result  was  an  article  from  his  pen,  published  in  the  New 
York  Independent,  noting  the  changes  and  promotions  five  years  had  brought,  briefly  eu- 
logizing the  twelve  who  had  already  passed  away — Abraham  Lincoln,  Jacob  Collamer, 
William  Pitt  Fessenden,  Solomon  Foot,  James  H.  Lane,  Henry  Winter  Davis,  Thaddeus 
Stevens,Thomas  D.  Eliot,  Portus  Baxter,  James  T.  Hale,  John  B.  Steele,  and  Moses  F.  Odell. 
Of  Odell  he  says  :  "Elected  from  a  close  district  as  a  Democrat,  for  every  war  measure 
he  gave  his  cordial  vote.  When  this  amendment  was  first  voted  on  in  the  House,  he  was 
the  only  Democrat  who  voted  Aye  ;  and  when  it  was  finally  carried,  it  was  by  his  active 


246  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

At  once,  as  if  awaiting  this  consummation,  the  Union 
armies  were  everywhere  in  motion.  Grant  threw  the  left 
of  his  line  forward  to  Hatcher's  Run.  Sherman  moved 
north  from  Savannah  through  the  Carolinas — Generals 
Hampton,  Wheeler,  Hoke,  Hardee,  Cheatham,  Bragg,  and 
Johnston  offering  ineffectual  resistance.  Generals  Schofield 
and  Terry,  after  capturing  Wilmington,  N.  C.,  effected  a 
junction  with  Sherman  at  Goldsboro,  giving  Sherman  a 
new  base  on  the  sea.  Sherman's  movement  forced  the 
abandonment  by  the  enemy  of  the  entire  coast  from 
Savannah  to  Newbern,  with  forts,  gunboats,  dockyards, 
everything.  His  passage  left  a  broken-up  gap  of  fifty  to  a 
hundred  miles  in  all  the  railroads  that  crossed  his  course. 
Columbia  and  Charleston,  S.  C.,  were  burned  by  the  re- 
treating rebel  forces. 

In  conjunction  with  a  naval  force  General  Canby  began 
operations  against  Mobile.  Generals  Wilson  and  Stone- 
man  led  heavy  bands  of  horsemen  from  Nashville  and 
Knoxville  through  Georgia,  Alabama,  North  Carolina,  and 
Virginia  at  will,  blowing  up  arsenals,  tearing  up  railroads, 
destroying  stores.  Sheridan  swept  up  the  last  of  General 
Early' s  forces  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  and  with  ten 
thousand  cavalry  described  a  circle  of  devastation  about 
the  Confederate  Capital,  destroying  in  detail  the  James 
River  Canal,  one  of  the  most  important  feeders  of  Rich- 
mond. Sheridan's  orders  contemplated  his  ultimately 
joining  Sherman  in  North  Carolina,  but  they  left  him  a 
large  discretion.  He  returned  to  City  Point  near  the  end 

efforts  more  than  all  others  that  ten  Democratic  members  were  induced  to  yield  to  the 
decision  of  the  people,  and  submit  this  great  guarantee  of  liberty  to  the  States  for  ratifica- 
tion. There  are  three  veterans  in  this  contest,  which  was  at  last  crowned  with  success, 
whom  I  could  wish  had  lived  to  be  in  this  gallery  of  portraits— John  Quincy  Adams, 
Joshua  R.  Giddings,  and  Owen  Lovejoy.  But,  though  they  '  waited  long  and  died  with- 
out the  sight,1  they  can  never  be  forgotten  in  any  reminiscences  of  the  destroyers  of 
American  slavery." 

He  notices  those  who  had  found  the  straight  but  narrow  way  from  the  Representa- 
tives' Hall  to  the  Senate  Chamber ;  those  who  had  been  called  into  the  Cabinet,  elected 
Speakers  of  the  House,  elected  Governors  of  their  States,  sent  abroad  as  Ministers,  and 
in  general  commends  the  Republicans  of  those  times,  "  who  against  the  bitterest  oppo- 
sition, heedless  of  the  basest  invective,  amid  a  storm  of  denunciation  never  exceeded, 
with  a  united  South  and  a  divided  North,  with  a  prolonged  war  and  increasing  debt,  de- 
termined to  risk  their  political  existence  on  the  destruction  of  slavery,  and  who,  by  two 
years  of  faithful  labor,  triumphed." 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  247 

of  March,  having  captured  despatches  indicating  that  the 
end  was  at  hand  in  Richmond.  A  furious  attack  by 
General  Gordon  on  the  Union  Fort  Steadman  resulted  in 
its  capture,  but  the  rebels  were  unable  to  hold  it.  It  was 
supposed  that  the  object  of  this  assault  was  to  cover  the 
evacuation  of  Richmond.  Grant  did  not  propose  that  his 
eleven  months'  campaign  against  Richmond  should  end  in 
the  escape  of  the  foe. 

Sheridan,  in  command  of  the  left  or  loose  end  of  Grant's 
line,  drew  it  around  in  the  rear  of  Petersburg  past  Din- 
widdie  Court  House  to  Five  Forks,  the  key  of  General 
Lee's  last  railroad.  Five  Forks  won  by  a  hard  fight,  Grant 
ordered  a  general  assault.  Lee  called  General  Longstreet 
from  over  the  James,  and  the  citizens  of  Richmond  were 
roused  from  their  beds  to  man  the  intrenchments.  At 
daybreak  the  Ninth  Corps  carried  four  forts  by  assault. 
Generals  Wright,  Ord,  and  Sheridan  moved  in,  sweeping 
up  the  rebel  works,  taken  in  flank  and  rear.  With  the 
capture  of  Forts  Mahone  and  Gregg,  immediately  south 
of  Petersburg,  Lee's  line  was  broken  in  the  middle,  and 
Petersburg  and  Richmond  had  to  be  abandoned.  As 
Davis  fled  from  his  capital  Lincoln  visited  it,  and  was 
hailed  by  the  poor  people,  especially  the  blacks,  as  a  verita- 
ble savior.  Lee  endeavored  to  retire  south,  but  Sheridan 
was  too  fast  and  too  many  for  him.  Within  a  week  he  was 
surrounded,  and  forced  to  surrender  to  General  Grant. 
The  defences  of  Mobile  Were  carried  by  assault,  and 
Canby's  forces  marched  into  Mobile.  Lincoln  was  assas- 
sinated by  John  Wilkes  Booth  at  Ford's  Theatre  in  Wash- 
ington, and  Vice-President  Andrew  Johnson  became  Presi- 
dent. Selma,  Montgomery,  Raleigh,  Lynchburg,  Colum- 
bus, and  Macon  fell.  General  Johnston  surrendered.  The 
assassin  Booth  was  hunted  down  and  shot  by  a  private 
soldier.  General  Taylor  surrendered.  Jefferson  Davis 
was  captured,  General  Kirby  Smith  surrendered,  amnesty 
was  proclaimed,  the  blockade  rescinded,  commercial  re- 
strictions were  removed,  the  rebel  prisoners  paroled,  the 
Grand  Army  returned  to  the  Capital  for  review  and  muster 
out,  and  there  was  peace. 


248  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

The  last  forty  days  of  the  struggle  might  be  likened  to 
the  convulsion  that  closes  a  geological  period.  The  whole 
world,  as  it  were,  wore  a  different  face  when  the  tumult 
and  carnage  ceased.  It  was  when  these  bolts  of  war  were 
striking  in  every  direction  that  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress 
expired.  In  adjourning  the  House  the  Speaker  alluded  to 
the  approaching  end,  saying  :  "  We  mingle  our  congratu- 
lations with  those  of  the  free  men  we  represent  over  the 
victories  for  the  Union  that  have  made  the  winter  just 
closing  so  warm  with  joy  and  hope."  Referring  to  the 
soldiers,  living  and  dead,  in  moving  terms,  '*  May  I  not 
remind  you,"  he  said,  "  that  the  widow  and  the  fatherless, 
the  maimed  and  the  wounded,  the  diseased  and  the  suffer- 
ing, whose  anguish  springs  from  this  great  contest,  have 
claims  on  all  of  us,  heightened  immeasurably  by  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  cause  for  which  they  have  given  so  much  ?" 

Moving  the  customary  resolution  of  thanks  to  the 
Speaker,  Mr.  Cox,  the  leader  of  the  opposition,  called 
special  attention  to  the  stormy  character  of  the  times  and 
to  the  courtesy,  kindness,  and  fairness  with  which  the 
Speaker  had  discharged  his  duties,  and  proposed  without 
formality  and  with  earnestness  "  to  tender  him  our  thanks 
and  good- will.  I  trust,  sir,  that  in  the  future  the  same 
moderation  and  benignity  may  radiate  in  this  House  which 
has  radiated  from  the  Chair  during  the  present  Congress." 
Mr.  Dawson,  also  a  Democrat,  spoke  in  the  same  strain, 
saying  that  "  the  Speaker,  iri  his  political  action  toward 
friends  and  foes,  has  uniformly  observed  the  same  high 
urbanity,  frankness,  and  liberality." 

Mr.  Benjamin  Franklin  Taylor,  of  the  Chicago  Evening 
Journal,  wrote  of  the  Speaker  at  this  time  : 

"  Master  of  parliamentary  law,  acute,  accurate,  patient,  he  keeps  the 
legislative  desk  cleared  for  action,  and  the  good  ship  steadily  under  way. 
He  may  bring  an  unruly  member's  sentence  to  the  hammer  and  pound  it 
to  pieces,  but  he  does  not  strike  off  his  own  patience  with  the  same  blow  ; 
his  abiding  good  temper  is  never  '  going,  going,  gone  ! '  A  matter  may 
be  cumbered  with  all  manner  of  parliamentary  hedges  and  ditches,  but 
it  all  seems  clear  to  him  as  the  king's  highway.  I  did  not  marvel  at  his 
rigid  Impartiality,  but  his  wonderful  readiness  challenged  my  admiration. 
No  matter  what  question  in  unexpected  places  might  be  sprung  upon  him, 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  249 

it  was  no  sooner  asked  than  answered,  as  if  it  was  just  a  part  of  a  play 
and  this  was  the  rehearsal.  Endurance  more  than  brilliance  is  an  essen- 
tial quality  of  a  presiding  officer.  A  man  of  common  nerve  will  bear  a 
five  hours'  strain,  perhaps,  for  a  single  day  ;  but  when  you  add  to  that  a 
three  hours'  night-watch  at  the  wheel,  and  then  repeat  that  eked-out  day 
till  the  log  runs  out  to  months,  and  the  months  make  half  a  year,  and  if 
there  is  no  twang  to  the  strings  then,  no  abatement  of  the  natural  force, 
no  confusion  or  impatience,  you  may  conclude  that  he  is  not  an  '  iron 
man,'  as  some  would  say,  but  of  far  better  material  ;  as  much  better  as 
splendid  brain  and  nerves,  warmed  up  with  mental  life,  are  than  the  iron 
turned  and  twisted  in  the  blacksmith's  fire.  Admirably  adapted  for  the 
delicate  and  difficult  duties  of  the  third  officer  of  the  Government,  he  has 
nobly  discharged  them,  no  matter  whom  you  remember  as  having  occu- 
pied that  Chair  before  him." 

He  arrived  home,  March  nth,  worked  down,  but  there 
was  no  rest  for  him.  The  Rev.  Thomas  N.  Eddy,  of 
Chicago,  desired  him  to  deliver  the  address  at  the  April 
meeting  of  the  North-western  Freedmen's  Aid  Commis- 
sion, and  Mr.  Green  Clay  Smith,  of  Kentucky,  insisted 
that  he  should  come  to  Covington  in  May  and  give  him  a 
send-off  for  Congress.  Mr.  Greeley  wanted  him  to  take 
editorial  charge  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  and  urged  him 
to  purchase  stock  with  that  in  view.  His  friends  advised 
him  to  decline  this.  Joseph  Medill  writes  him  :  '*  Your 
true  policy  is  to  remain  a  citizen  of  Indiana.  Indiana  is 
your  fulcrum.  Don't  part  with  it.  No  man  rises  and 
stays  up  unless  his  State  backs  him  ;  and  if  a  great  State 
heartily  backs  any  man  he  is  sure  to  prosper  and  succeed." 
Again  :  "  If  you  don't  go  to  the  Senate  two  years  hence 
you  can  be  Governor  of  the  State,  and  Senator  afterward. 
You  ought  to  visit  Indianapolis  and  '  stick  some  stakes.' 
Don't  be  modest  about  it.  I  presume  Illinois  will  furnish 
the  next  President,  Grant,  and  Ohio  the  next,  Sherman. 
You  can  be  Vice  ditto  with  either."  Mr.  Boutwell  writes 
him  of  reconstruction  ;  he  believes  the  blacks  must  have 
the  suffrage,  and  fears  the  North  is  not  prepared  for  it. 
"  We  are  living  in  glorious  times,"  writes  John  A.  Gris- 
wold,  of  Troy,  N.  Y.  ;  "  what  will  our  metallic  [Copper- 
head] friends  have  to  fall  back  on  for  comfort  ?  Are  we  to 
have  an  extra  session  ?" 

On  the  2Qth  he  spoke  before  the  New  Carlisle  (Indiana) 


2$0  SCHUYLER   GOLF  AX. 

Collegiate  Institute,  and  upon  the  fall  of  Richmond  fitly 
closed  his  connection  with  the  Register  by  an  editorial  an- 
nouncing "  that  with  the  heart  of  treason  paralyzed,  there 
can  be  no  vitality  in  its  extremities."  He  noted  the  mili- 
tary moves  on  the  gigantic  chess-board  of  battle  "  which 
cover  the  Lieutenant-General  with  glory."  He  empha- 
sized, as  always,  "  that  we  owe  the  victory  to  our  heroic 
defenders  in  the  field.  Let  us  rejoice  with  our  President- 
elect that,  in  spite  of  all,  he  at  last  sees  the  salvation  of 
the  Republic  committed  to  his  charge,  and  is  recognized 
to-day  as  President  at  Richmond  and  Charleston,  as  at 
New  York  and  Washington.  Let  us  rejoice  that,  emerging 
from  the  red  sea  of  civil  war,  we  have  a  land  without  a 
rebel  or  a  slave  within  its  borders."  What  a  remarkable 
twenty  years  were  his  editorial  life  !  Beginning  with  the 
Mexican  war  for  the  upbuilding  of  slavery,  and  ending 
with  the  complete  overthrow  of  slavery  by  the  war  for  the 
indivisibility  of  the  Union. 

He  had  disposed  of  his  entire  interest  in  the  Register 
shortly  after  his  election  as  Speaker,  as  appears  from  the 
following  letter  : 

"  WASHINGTON  CITY,  December  22,  1864. 

"  FRIEND  WHEELER  :  We  have  just  adjourned  over  the  holidays,  hav- 
ing finished  up  all  the  public  bills  on  our  calendar,  and  I  start  to-morrow 
to  speak  at  Wilmington,  Del.,  and  am  to  lecture  before  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  and  at  Philadelphia  before  the 
reassembling  of  Congress.  I  consider  my  three  fourths  of  the  Register 
sold  to  you,  and  am  willing  to  have  it  date  back  to  November  ist,  as 
you  propose,  you  paying  the  interest  on  the  thirty-seven  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars'  purchase-money  from  that  date,  and  of  course  receiving  the 
earnings  that  would  be  coming  to  me  after  that  time.  I  should  like  three 
thousand  dollars  down,  and  the  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  can  re- 
main on  interest,  half  in  six  months,  half  in  twelve  months,  as  you  pro- 
pose ;  but  I  will  not  accept  any  security  from  you,  as  you  offer,  for  the 
deferred  payments,  but  just  your  note.  I  need  scarcely  tell  you  that 
after  my  long  and  pleasant  acquaintance  and  partnership  with  you  I 
would  trust  you  with  uncounted  gold.  I  have  felt  such  an  abiding  con- 
fidence in  your  rigid  and  exact  honesty,  which  is  better  than  the  general 
honesty  of  the  world,  that  I  have  not  looked  over  the  books  for  years, 
but  took  your  balance-sheets  as  you  made  them  out,  confident  that  they 
were  as  near  right  as  the  mixed-up  accounts  of  a  printing-office  could  be. 
I  want  you  to  keep  on  collecting  the  arrearages  just  as  you  have  hitherto. 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  2$  I 

As  my  rent  accounts  are  on  the  Register  books,  I  would  like  to  have  them 
stay  there,  and  you  take  the  general  oversight  of  them  and  of  my  insur- 
ance still  I  settle  down,  if  I  ever  do,  just  as  you  have  hitherto.  I  expect 
to  go  to  California  and  the  Pacific  Coast  next  summer,  and  if  I  get  out  of 
public  life,  to  Europe  some  of  these  days  ;  and  I  would  rather  have  you 
act  as  my  agent  in  these  things  than  any  one  else,  as  you  know  more  of 
them.  Of  course  I  shall  pay  you  what  you  think  right  for  your 
trouble. 

"  Get  some  one  at  South  Bend  to  make  out  a  bill  of  sale  that  will  be 
according  to  our  law,  and  I  will  sign  and  acknowledge  it  here.  But  if  I 
should  die  in  the  mean  time,  feel  perfectly  safe.  My  mother  is  my  main 
heir,  and  you  need  only  show  her  this  letter,  if  accident  should  happen 
to  me,  for  her  to  carry  it  out  to  the  letter.  You  need  not  send  the  money 
till  I  send  the  bill  of  sale,  signed,  but  I  should  like  it  within  a  very  few 
days  after  New  Year's,  as  I  desire  to  invest  it.  If  I  keep  it  about  me  I 
should  be  sure  to  give  half  of  it  away.  I  wish  you  would  collect  my  rent 
of  Hanauer.  I  called  to  see  him  twice  before  I  left,  but  he  was  in  New 
York.  My  expenses  are  fearful,  twenty-two  hundred  dollars  for  house 
and  board  for  self  and  family  three  months,  besides  a  variety  of  other 
expenses.  Leaving  the  paper  I  have  built  up  and  worked  so  many  years 
on  in  the  past  is  a  little  painful,  Wheeler,  but  I  transfer  it  to  good  hands, 
and  I  am  glad  to  say  to  those  not  strangers  to  its  subscribers.  I  wish 
for  you  and  Hall  the  most  abundant  prosperity  and  success  ;  and  I  pre- 
dict, after  the  war,  better  times  for  papers  than  now.  Better  not  pub- 
lish the  dissolution  till  after  the  papers  are  perfected  and  my  valedictory 
ready. 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

"  SCHUYLER   COLFAX." 

It  was  during  the  last  session  of  the  Thirty-sixth  Con- 
gress that  his  thoughts  first  turned  toward  an  overland  trip 
to  the  Pacific.  In  carrying  through  the  establishment  of 
a  daily  overland  mail,  he  was  brought  into  association 
with  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Pacific  States,  and 
familiarized  with  their  interests.  He  had  determined  to 
go  over  in  the  first  daily  mail-coach  in  June,  1861,  but  this 
was  prevented  by  the  breaking  out  of  war.  Before  he 
could  execute  his  intention,  through  what  travail  what 
deeds  were  to  be  done,  changing  the  course  of  history  ! 
Now  the  war-cloud  had  broken,  its  terrors  had  exhausted 
themselves  ;  "  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one 
and  inseparable,"  had  been  made  things  instead  of  signs 
for  things,  and  he  determined  to  make  his  deferred  over- 
land journey.  Congress  had  offered  liberal  inducements 


252  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

for  the  construction  of  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific,  and  the 
enterprise  was  then  struggling  in  its  incipient  stages.  He 
wished  to  ascertain  from  personal  observation  the  capabil- 
ities of  the  West,  with  the  view  of  encouraging  the  invest- 
ment of  money  in  the  construction  of  the  railroad.  He  in- 
vited Messrs.  John  B.  Alley,  William  B.  Allison,  James  A. 
Garfield,  and  other  gentlemen  to  accompany  him.  None 
of  them  were  able  to  go.  The  party,  as  at  last  made  up — 
namely,  of  the  Speaker,  ex-Lieutenant-Governor  William 
Bross,  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  A.  D.  Richardson,  of  the 
New  York  Tribune,  and  Sam  Bowles,  of  the  Springfield, 
Mass.,  Republican — was  not  finally  agreed  upon  until  within 
a  week  or  so  of  setting  out. 

Upon  the  surrender  of  General  Lee,  Mr.  Colfax  made 
what  was  intended  to  be  a  hurried  visit  to  Washington,  to 
learn  from  the  President  his  views  with  respect  to  an  extra 
session  of  Congress,  arriving  on  the  evening  of  April  i3th. 
The  city  was  celebrating  the  downfall  of  the  Rebellion,  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  on  the  streets,  enjoying  the  brilliant 
spectacle.  Calling  on  the  President  early  the  next  morn- 
ing, Lincoln  said  to  him  :  "  You  are  going  to  California,  I 
hear.  How  I  would  rejoice  to  make  that  trip  !  But  public 
duties  chain  me  down  here,  and  I  can  only  envy  you  its 
pleasures.  Now,  I  have  been  thinking  over  a  speech  I  want 
you  to  make  for  me  to  the  miners  you  may  find  on  the 
journey."  (This  speech,  widely  published  at  the  time,  had 
reference  to  the  importance  the  President  attached  to  gold 
and  silver  mining,  and  to  the  encouragement  he  deemed  it 
wise  for  the  Government  to  extend  to  the  business.)  He 
then  changed  the  subject,  and  talked  long  over  the  cessa- 
tion of  war  and  the  course  he  had  been  contemplating  with 
regard  to  the  prostrate  States.  While  Mr.  Lincoln  left  the 
room  to  get  some  papers,  William  A.  Howard,  of  Michi- 
gan, was  by  the  President's  direction  admitted  to  audi- 
ence. Returning,  the  President  explained  his  instructions 
to  General  Wetzel  to  allow  the  Virginia  Legislature  to 
convene  again  in  Richmond,  saying  he  was  not  sure  that 
it  was  wise,  but  that  his  idea  was  to  have  that  Legislature 
formally  recall  the  Virginia  troops  from  the  service  of  the 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  253 

tottering  Confederacy,  and  thus  save  life.  Since  Lee's 
army  had  surrendered  this  had  become  needless. 

He  next  read  a  memorandum  of  the  well-known  terms 
offered  at  the  Hampton  Roads  Conference,  and  said  he  had 
reiterated  them  in  substance  while  he  was  in  Richmond  at 
an  interview  sought  by  Judge  Campbell.  Since  that  Judge 
Campbell  had  written  him,  suggesting  the  pardon  of  lead- 
ing rebels  as  essential  to  pacification.  He  characterized 
this  as  a  breach  of  faith,  and  said  that  upon  receiving  it  he 
at  once  revoked  the  authority  for  the  reassembling  of  the 
Legislature.  He  believed  there  could  be  no  restoration  of 
peace  or  order  with  the  leading  rebels  in  the  country,  and 
proposed  to  have  our  generals  "  skeer"  them  out  by  in- 
timating to  them  that  they  would  not  be  pursued,  but 
would  be  punished  for  their  crimes  if  they  remained. 
"  Then  we  can  be  magnanimous  to  the  rest,  and  have  peace 
and  quiet  in  the  whole  land."  He  spoke  with  great  im- 
pressiveness  of  his  determination  to  secure  liberty  and  jus- 
tice to  all,  with  full  protection  for  the  humblest,  and  to 
re-establish  on  a  sure  foundation  the  unity  of  the  Republic 
after  the  sacrifices  made  for  its  preservation. 

He  invited  Mr.  Colfax  to  go  with  him  to  the  theatre 
that  evening,  adding  :  "  General  Grant  promised  to  go, 
but  has  gone  North  to  visit  his  wife,  and  I  suppose  I  must 
go,  that  the  people  may  not  be  disappointed."  Colfax  told 
him  he  expected  to  return  home  the  next  morning,  and 
had  business  with  two  Cabinet  ministers  that  afternoon 
and  evening.  He  made  an  appointment  to  call  again  at 
7.30  in  the  evening  ;  and  at  that  hour  he  and  Mr.  Ash- 
mun,  of  Massachusetts,  chairman  of  the  Convention  that 
first  nominated  Lincoln,  had  a  last  audience  with  the 
President.  In  the  course  of  conversation,  the  President 
made  some  remark  which  displeased  Mr.  Ashmun.  Notic- 
ing this,  he  frankly  apologized.  At  ten  minutes  past  eight 
Mr.  Lincoln  rose  and  said  :  "  Mother,  I  suppose  it's  time 
to  go,  though  I  would  rather  stay  ;"  and  after  a  few  words 
about  the  play,  Our  American  Cousin,  they  all  proceeded  to 
the  door  of  the  White  House.  Turning  there,  the  Presi- 
dent said  to  Mr.  Ashmun  :  "  I  gave  Colfax  this  morning  a 


254  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

message  to  the  miners  whom  he  will  meet  on  the  trip,  and 
I  will  tell  you  the  points  in  it,  to  see  if  you  concur  with 
me,"  which  he  did  ;  and  then,  referring  to  his  promise 
of  the  morning  to  let  Mr.  Colfax  know  at  San  Francisco 
his  final  conclusion  as  to  the  time  for  an  extra  session,  if 
one  were  to  be  convened,  he  grasped  the  Speaker's  hand, 
and  said  :  "  Pleasant  journey  to  you  ;  I'll  telegraph  you  at 
San  Francisco  ;  good-by  ;"  "  and  that,"  says  Mr.  Colfax, 
whose  original  minutes  this  account  of  this  interview  fol- 
lows, "  was  his  last  good-by  on  earth/' 

Returning  from  his  other  interviews  to  his  lodgings,  he 
heard  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue  of  the  assassination  of  Mr. 
Lincoln.  The  President  had  been  shot  in  the  back  of  the 
head  by  John  Wilkes  Booth  ten  minutes  before.  He  re- 
paired immediately  to  the  White  House,  and  thence  to 
the  room  where  the  President  lay  unconscious,  and  with 
other  gentlemen  remained  at  his  bedside  till  five  o'clock 
the  next  morning.  The  Surgeon-General  saying  that  he 
thought  Lincoln  might  not  die  till  noon,  his  strong  consti- 
tution giving  way  so  slowly,  the  Speaker,  with  Secretary 
McCulloch  and  others  in  waiting,  left,  intending  to  return 
at  eight,  but  on  their  way  back  learned  that  the  President 
had  died  a  few  minutes  previously.  He  had  been  uncon- 
scious from  the  firing  of  the  shot. 

It  does  not  fall  within  our  province  to  attempt  a  de- 
scription of  the  mingled  consternation,  grief,  and  rage  of 
the  people  at  this  bereavement,  or  of  the  solemn  funeral 
procession  to  the  President's  prairie  home.  No  man  was 
ever  so  widely  loved  and  mourned  before  ;  and  none  since, 
except  Garfield,  stricken  down  in  the  same  way,  and 
eighty  days  dying.  Aside  from  the  kith  and  kin  of  the 
President,  no  one  felt  the  "  deep  damnation  of  his  taking 
off"  more  keenly  than  Schuyler  Colfax.  On  his  return 
home  from  the  funeral,  he  hastily  prepared  an  estimate  of 
Lincoln's  life  and  character,  at  the  request  of  his  South 
Bend  friends,  and  delivered  it  to  his  townspeople.  It  was 
bound  up,  with  those  of  George  Bancroft,  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  Bishop  Simpson,  Dr.  Gurley,  and  General  Wai- 
bridge,  in  a  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  brought  out  almost  imme- 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  255 

diately  by  Peterson  Brothers,  of  Philadelphia.  The 
Speaker  repeated  it  in  Chicago,  in  Denver,  at  Salt  Lake 
City,  and  in  other  places,  at  that  time,  and  hundreds  of 
times  years  afterward,  in  a  revised  form.  The  "  Life  of 
Lincoln"  referred  to  was  prepared  by  J.  Brainerd  William- 
son, of  the  Philadelphia  and  Washington  press.  Introduc- 
ing Colfax's  tribute,  the  author  says  : 

"  No  one  knew  the  lamented  dead  better  than  he.  There  was  a  unity 
of  heart  between  the  two,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  rarely  took  any  step  affecting 
the  interests  of  the  nation  without  making  known  his  intentions  to  and 
consulting  with  Mr.  Colfax,  in  whose  judgment  he  placed  the  utmost 
confidence.  A  strong  affection  existed  between  them,  each  admiring  and 
respecting  the  other  for  the  honesty,  integrity,  and  firmness  of  character 
which  have  made  the  names  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Schuyler  Colfax 
households  words  throughout  the  land." 

11  How  much  I  loved  him  personally,"  said  Mr.  Colfax, 
"  I  cannot  express  to  you.  Honored  always  by  his  confi- 
dence ;  treated  ever  by  him  with  affectionate  regard  ;  sit- 
ting often  with  him  familiarly  at  his  table  ;  his  last  visitor 
on  that  terrible  night  ;  receiving  his  last  message,  full  of 
interest  to  the  toiling  miners  of  the  distant  West  ;  walking 
by  his  side  from  his  parlor  to  his  door,  as  he  took  his  last 
steps  in  that  Executive  Mansion  he  had  honored  ;  receiv- 
ing the  last  grasp  of  that  generous  and  loving  hand  and 
his  last  good-by  ;  declining  his  last  kind  invitation  to 
join  him  in  those  hours  of  relaxation  which  incessant  care 
and  anxiety  seemed  to  render  so  desirable  ;  my  mind  has 
since  been  tortured  by  regrets  that  I  had  not  accompanied 
him."  He  thought  he  might  possibly  have  averted  or 
caught  the  fatal  blow  himself.  "  The  willingness  of  any 
man  to  endanger  his  life  for  another's  is  so  much  doubted, 
that  I  can  scarcely  dare  to  say  how  willingly  I  would  have 
risked  my  own  to  preserve  his,  of  such  priceless  value  to  us 
all." 

Andrew  Johnson  was  now  acting  President.  Mr.  Col- 
fax consulted  him  as  to  the  probability  of  an  extra  session 
of  Congress.  ,Mr.  Johnson  said  he  was  too  distracted  to 
have  given  it  any  thought,  and  Colfax  arranged  with  Secre- 
tary Stanton  to  telegraph  him  at  San  Francisco  if  one  was 


256  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

to  be  called.  After  reaching  the  coast,  he  so  timed  his 
movements  that  he  could  take  any  semi-monthly  steamer 
home. 

Many  things  contributed  to  fix  public  attention  on  this 
overland  trip.  The  hostility  of  the  South,  attested  on  a 
thousand  battle-fields,  intensified  fraternal  feeling  for  the 
West.  It  was  regarded  as  an  imperative  necessity  that  the 
West  should  be  bound  to  the  East  by  a  railroad.  It  was 
an  unknown  country  ;  its  gold-digging  and  its  silver-min- 
ing ;  its  deserts,  its  mountains,  and  its  salt  seas  ;  its  Ind- 
ians and  Mormons  and  Orientals,  were  novelties  differ- 
entiating it  from  the  homogeneous  commonplace  East. 
The  war  had  but  slightly  affected  the  Pacific  Coast.  The 
extreme  West  had  but  a  very  small  share  in  the  experience 
of  sacrifice  and  suffering  in  which  the  rest  of  the  country 
was  so  rich.  In  a  word,  the  West  was  a  half  brother, 
which  it  was  not  only  desirable  but  a  "  military  necessity" 
to  bring  into  the  family  as  a  full  son  and  heir. 

The  question  of  reconstruction  was  troubling  the  minds 
of  thoughtful  men,  and  since  the  tragic  end  of  Lincoln  Mr. 
Colfax  ranked  with  the  most  trusted  national  leaders.  His 
name  was,  in  truth,  a  household  word.  His  utterances  had 
the  weight  of  oracles.  They  were  practical,  sagacious, 
timely,  and  they  had  character  behind  them.  Many  were 
the  solicitous  queries  of  friends — who  valued  him  both  as  a 
man  and  a  leader — as  to  the  prudence  of  his  undertaking 
such  a  jaunt,  largely  in  a  hostile  Indian  country.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  West,  cut  off  from  the  home-land,  and  full 
of  his  personal  friends,  many  of  them  his  old  constituents, 
felt  very  kindly  toward  this  gentleman,  high  in  office,  and 
his  travelling  companions,  trained  newspaper  men,  braving 
the  dangers  and  hardships  of  such  a  journey,  "  simply  to 
see  the  country,  to  study  its  resources,  to  learn  its  people 
and  their  wants,"  in  order  that  they  might  the  more  intel- 
ligently acquit  themselves  in  their  public  duties.  Not 
more  interest  attached  in  the  public  mind  of  Hellas  to  the 
voyage  of  Argo  than  in  the  public  mind  .of  this  country 
to  the  Speaker's  overland  trip  in  1865.  As  a  quasi-public 
mission,  sanctioned  as  such  by  the  last  words  of  Lincoln, 


REDUCED  FAC-SIMILE. 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  257 

it  was  followed  by  millions  with  a  solicitude  half  patriotic, 
half  personal,  as  its  varying  stages  were  detailed  in  the 
widely-published  letters  of  his  companions.  He  himself 
kept  a  diary,  he  preserved  a  volume  of  contemporary  press 
notices,  he  wrote  almost  daily  letters  to  his  mother,  or  to 
some  one  of  his  friends.  The  story  is  best  summarized  in 
two  of  his  letters  to  a  favorite  cousin,  Mrs.  Woodhull,  of 
Camden,  N.  J.,  to  wit  : 

"  ON  STEAMER  PETALUMA,  BETWEEN  SAN  FRANCISCO  AND? 
PETALUMA  (40  miles  North),  July  5,  1865.          j 

1  MY  DEAR  COUSIN  CARRIE  :  Just  as  I  was  starting  from  the  Occi- 
dental Hotel  for  a  steamboat  sail  to  Petaluma  to  try  and  find  Elias  M. 
Matthews  and  family,  my  stepfather's  brother,  my  mail  was  brought 
from  the  post-office,  and  there  was  a  dear,  good,  long  letter  from  Cousin 
Carrie,  which  I  determined  to  answer  right  off  on  the  steamer  ;  for  be- 
tween sight-seeing,  dinners,  and  suppers,  and  incessant  calls  at  my  parlor 
at  the  hotel,  I  have  riot  a  moment  of  time  to  write  there  from  breakfast 
till  midnight.  What  a  delightful  trip  you  must  have  had  to-  Freehold, 
New  York,  and  Dobb's  Ferry,  and  how  I  would  like  to  have  been  with 
you !  But,  alas  !  as  you  know,  when  I  am  in  the  States,  as  they  call  it 
here,  my  time  is  so  absorbed  by  the  exactions  of  public  life  and  public 
duties,  that  I  have  scarcely  time  to  visit  the  dearest  and  best-loved  friends 
I  have  in  the  world.  Some  of  these  days  I  will  be  beaten  for  Congress  ; 
and  then,  in  private  life,  for  which  I  have  so  often  longed,  I  will  have 
more  time.  You  wondered  where  I  was  on  the  ist  of  June.  I  was  at 
Denver,  Col.  Terr.  ;  came  down  that  morning  from  a  hundred-mile 
ramble  through  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  delivered  a  eulogy  there  on 
our  martyred  President  to  an  immense  audience,  which  wept,  as  I  did, 
even  while  speaking,  at  the  recollection  thus  freshened  to  our  minds  of 
our  great  loss. 

"  We  had  a  delightful  though  wearying  and  dangerous  trip  across  the 
continent.  When  I  return  to  Frisco,  as  San  Francisco  is  called  here  for 
short,  I  will  send  you  a  paper  with  some  allusions  to  the  last  part  of  it 
by  one  of  the  local  reporters  who  was  with  us  when  we  crossed  the 
Sierra  Nevada.  (The  boat  joggles,  and  you  must  excuse  the  chirography, 
which,  however,  is  about  as  good  as  my  normal  handwriting,  or  yours  !) 
The  Indians  are  on  the  war-path  all  through  from  Atchison  to  Salt 
Lake,  or  rather  to  Fort  Bridger,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  east 
of  the  city  of  the  Saints.  Just  before  we  left  the  Missouri  River  they 
killed  some  soldiers  and  chased  two  stages  ;  and  between  Denver  and 
Fort  Bridger  they  struck  the  road  three  times  within  one  day  of  us,  and 
once  within  an  hour  killing  emigrants,  stealing  stock,  and  murdering  at 
Sage  Creek  the  guard  of  soldiers  we  had  talked  with  the  evening  before. 
But  we  were  all  armed,  and  at  all  points  of  the  route  where  it  was  sup- 


258  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

posed  to  be  dangerous  had  military  escorts  of  half  a  dozen  cavalry,  pro- 
vided by  the  kindness  of  Secretary  Stanton.  This  probably  saved  our 
lives  ;  but  we  should  have  fought  the  red  devils  to  the  last  if  they  had 
attacked  us  rather  than  allow  them  to  dance  around  our  scalps  in  their 
wigwams. 

"  The  road  from  Atchison  to  Denver,  some  six  hundred  miles,  is  a 
splendid  natural  road  over  the  boundless  plains  bordering  on  the  Platte. 
We  travelled  it  in  five  days  lacking  two  hours,  including  all  stops  for  meals 
— one  of  the  quickest  trips  on  record.  We  had  all  through  the  whole 
journey  a  special  stage  to  ourselves,  and  the  drivers  rivalled  each  other 
in  the  rapid  time  they  made.  Everywhere  we  were  received  with  joy 
and  cordiality,  and  had  the  best  living  possible  in  a  region  where  for 
hundreds  of  miles  there  were  no  houses  at  all  except  the  station  houses, 
arid  many  of  them  burned  and  robbed  three  times  in  a  year  by  the  hostile 
Indians.  We  spent  a  week  in  Denver  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  among 
the  snow-capped  peaks,  and  down  in  the  mines,  and  visiting  ihe  quartz- 
crushing  mills  ;  and  I  stayed  of  course  with  Sister  Clara,  who,  with  her 
husband,  Mr.  Witter,  and  Brother  Elias,  is  keeping  house  at  Denver.1 
From  Denver  to  Salt  Lake  the  road  is  more  rugged,  but  we  made  good 
time  over  it,  having,  however,  to  lie  over  two  nights,  and  once  twenty- 
four  hours,  on  account  of  Indians.  For  forty-five  miles  at  one  point 
they  had  stolen  the  stock  of  the  Overland  Company  three  times  in  two 
weeks,  and  stole  the  new  stock  just  bought  the  day  after  we  passed 
over  it. 

"  We  stayed  a  week  in  Utah  Territory,  five  days  of  it  at  Salt  Lake 
City,  and  were  treated  with  great  hospitality  by  the  Mormons  and  Gen- 
tiles too.  Brigham  Young  exacts  the  first  call  from  all  Gentiles  who  visit 
there,  but  I  declined  flatly,  and  he  came  down  to  the  hotel,  with  his 
apostles  and  bishops,  and  made  a  two  hours'  call  on  all  of  us — the  first 
time  he  ever  made  the  first  call  there.  We  returned  his  call,  at  his  own 
house,  and  after  a  general  talk  of  an  hour,  he  asked  me  what  I  thought  of 
polygamy,  and  what  we  intended  to  do  about  it.  I  answered  him  that  it 
was  about  time  for  him  to  have  a  new  revelation  stopping  it  ;  and  we 
then  had  a  general  conversation  about  it,  a  square,  plain,  Anglo-Saxon 
expression  of  our  opinion — the  plainest  talk,  one  of  the  Mormons  said 
who  was  with  us,  that  had  ever  been  heard  in  his  house.  But  I  have  no 
deceit  about  me,  and  could  not  conceal  my  opinions  when  asked.  We 
went  to  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  twenty-one  miles  from  the  city,  and  bathed 
there  ;  and  though  I  cannot  swim,  the  water  is  so  dense  (five  barrels  of  it 
make  one  barrel  of  salt)  I  could  not  sink.  It  seemed  odd  at  Mormon 
houses  where  we  were  invited  to  dinner  to  be  introduced  to  two  Mrs. 

1.  In  a  letter  to  his  mother  from  Denver  he  says  :  "  Clara  is  living  very  comfortably 
and  pleasantly  here,  but  the  cost  is  fearful.  Think  of  twenty  cents  a  pound  for  potatoes 
now  ;  eggs  last  winter  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  dozen,  now  one  dollar  and  a  quarter  ;  flour, 
twenty  to  twenty-five  dollars  a  hundred  ;  molasses,  five  dollars  a  gallon  ;  butter,  two  dol- 
lars a  pound  last  winter,  one  dollar  now  ;  coal-oil,  four  dollars  a  gallon,  and  so  on,  all 
through." 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  259 

Jennings's,  for  instance,  one  after  the  other,  and  to  see  them  both  wait- 
ing on  the  table.  We  saw  one  house  where  a  man,  quite  poor,  had  three 
wives  and  but  two  rooms  in  the  house,  one  to  cook  and  eat  in,  and  the 
other  with  two  beds  in.  You  can  imagine,  without  my  enlarging  on  it, 
what  a  man  who  has  no  wife  at  all  thinks  of  such  a  system. 

"  The  Saturday  night  before  we  left  they  had  a  special  performance 
at  their  theatre  in  our  honor.  It  is  the  largest  theatre  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  except  the  two  opera-houses  in  Chicago  and  Cincinnati,  and  was 
crowded.  Between  the  two  plays  I  went  down  with  an  old  friend,  Cap- 
tain Hooper,  their  delegate  in  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress,  who,  though  a 
Mormon,  has  but  one  wife,  into  the  parquette,  which  is  reserved  for  fam- 
ilies. I  saw  fourteen  of  Brigham  Young's  wives  there  and  about  a  dozen 
of  Heber  C.  Kimball's,  the  second  in  authority.  Brigham's  were  fair- 
looking,  though  not  very  beautiful,  and  Heber's  quite  ordinary.  Brig- 
ham  came  down  from  his  private  box  and  took  me  up  to  it,  introducing 
me  there  to  his  first  wife,  a  matronly  and  fine-looking  old  lady  of  about 
sixty  years.  But  he  did  not  introduce  me  to  the  younger  ones.  He  has 
fifty  children  and  a  school  for  them  within  his  enclosure.  I  saw  half  a 
dozen  of  the  grown-up  daughters,  all  good-looking.  One  of  his  sons-in- 
law  has  two  of  them  for  wives  !  I  made  two  speeches  to  Mormon  audi- 
ences at  Salt  Lake,  and  told  them  that  the  Government  had  the  right  to 
demand  of  them  obedience  to  the  laws  ;  and  that  when  they  lived  up  to 
that  allegiance  they  had  a  right  to  demand  the  amplest  protection.  I 
think  they  liked  my  frankness,  for  they  treated  me  very  cordially  in- 
deed, and  invited  me  to  repeat  my  eulogy  on  Lincoln  in  their  Tabernacle 
Sunday  evening,  which  I  did  to  an  audience  of  six  thousand,  one  thousand 
more  than  Brigham  himself  had  at  his  preaching  in  the  afternoon,  they 
giving  up  all  their  ward  meetings  that  everybody  might  come.  Salt  Lake 
is  a  beautiful  city,  a  perfect  Palmyra  of  the  desert,  charming  gardens, 
fine  houses,  and  the  streams  that  irrigate  the  gardens  running  down  every 
street,  singing  in  their  pebbly  beds. 

"  From  Salt  Lake  to  Virginia  City,  Nev.,  we  dashed  through  six  hun- 
dred miles  in  seventy-three  hours,  including  six  hours  for  meals,  over 
mountain  and  plain,  up  steep  grades  and  down  rocky  ravines,  the  most 
rapid  stage-coaching  on  such  roads  known  on  the  continent,  I  suspect, 
and  the  quickest  trip  ever  made.  The  whole  was  arranged  for,  horses 
harnessed  and  ready  at  every  station,  and  we  changed  six-horse  teams, 
and  were  off  again  in  two  minutes  and  a  half.  We  had  no  accident  what- 
ever, and  I  rode  most  of  the  time  outside  with  the  driver,  to  enjoy  the 
novel  and  ever-changing  scenery.  There  are  thirteen  ranges  of  moun- 
tains between  Salt  Lake  City  and  Virginia  City,  lying  north  and  south, 
like  the  lakes  in  Western  New  York  ;  two  of  them  we  passed,  through 
gates,  a  natural  level  road  cut  out  of  the  range.  We  spent  a  week  in 
all  in  Nevada,  looking  through  their  silver  mines,  going  down  all  kinds 
of  shafts,  four  hundred  and  as  far  as  five  hundred  and  fifty  feet  under 
ground.  And  then  we  crossed  the  Sierra  Nevada  into  California.  On 


260  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

the  route  we  had  a  sail  on  Lake  Tahoe,  or  Bigler,  sixty-five  hundred 
feet  above  the  sea,  and  the  highest  place  in  the  world,  I  suspect,  on  which 
a  steamboat  sails.  It  is  twenty-one  miles  by  ten,  embosomed  in  the 
mountains,  and  the  water  so  crystal  clear  you  can  see  one  hundred  feet 
down. 

"  And  then  we  almost  flew  down  the  Sierra  to  Placerville,  the  horses 
on  the  fastest  possible  gallop,  often  fifteen  miles  per  hour,  with  high 
mountains  on  one  side  and  deep  chasms  on  the  other,  and  the  graded 
road  cut  out  of  the  hill-side  like  a  railroad  grade  on  the  New  York  and 
Erie.  We  had  drivers  who  knew  every  foot  of  the  road,  and  never  had 
an  accident,  and  they  whirled  us  through  and  between  and  around  the 
long  lines  of  ten-mule  freight  wagons  we  met,  going  on  the  run,  and 
within  a  foot  of  the  edge  often,  with  a  splendid  skill  in  driving  I  had  never 
seen  equalled.  It  was  exhilarating,  and  sitting  by  the  driver  I  felt  no 
danger  whatever.  As  we  passed  teams  or  stations  on  the  keen  jump,  with 
flags  on  our  horses'  heads  and  on  the  stage,  we  were  cheered  vocifer- 
ously ;  my  hat  had  to  be  off  a  great  deal  of  the  time,  acknowledging  the 
compliment.  I  have  not  time  to  tell  you  of  the  many  compliments  our 
party  have  received,  but  the  most  touching  was,  as  we  were  riding  in  the 
Fourth  of  July  procession  at  San  Francisco,  to  have  a  thousand  school  chil- 
dren cheer  us  all  at  once  as  we  passed  them  and  then  break  out  into  a 
national  air.  After  the  oration  I  spoke  about  fifteen  minutes,  and  such 
cheering  I  never  heard,  even  at  home. 

14  Now,  you  can't  scold  me  for  too  short  a  letter,  for  this  hurriedly-writ- 
ten one  is  equal  to  sixteen  pages  of  note-paper,  and  I  have  given  up  look- 
ing at  the  scenery  of  the  bay  and  river  to  write  it,  as  you  said  you  would 
be  so  glad  to  hear  from  Cousin  Schuyler.  My  love  to  Cousin  George  and 
all  the  dear  children  ;  I  send  kisses  to  them  all  from  this  far-off  Pacific 
shore,  thirty-five  hundred  miles  away,  where  we  don't  get  up  till  three  or 
four  hours  after  you  do,  down  East  ;  and  along  with  them  goes,  in  this 
envelope,  the  affectionate  and  sincere  love  of  your  roaming  cousin, 

"  SCHUYLER." 

The  Alfa  California  of  the  2oth  of  August  said  :  "  They 
return  to  the  East  on  the  steamer  of  Saturday  next,  carry- 
ing with  them  the  hearty  good  wishes  of  everybody  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  and  the  warm  friendship  of  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  who  has  had  the  good  fortune  to  make 
their  acquaintance.  The  visit  has  been  productive  of 
pleasure,  both  to  them  and  to  our  citizens  generally,  and 
we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  interests  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  will  be  greatly  promoted  by  it." 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  26 1 

Second  Letter. 

"  STEAMER  NEW  YORK,  ATLANTIC  OCEAN,          \ 

800  miles  from  Aspinwall,  uoo  from  New  York,    >• 

September  19,  1865.       J 

"  MY  DEAR  COUSIN  CARRIE  :  I  was  reading  over  again  just  now  the 
more  than  welcome  letter  I  received  from  you  at  San  Francisco  ;  and  I 
thought,  as  we  were  approaching  the  end  of  our  long  journey,  I  would 
answer  it  again,  even  if  hurriedly,  so  that  you  would  be  sure,  amid  the 
exciting  and  interesting  scenes  of  travel  of  the  last  four  months,  I  had 
not  forgotten  you  and  yours.  We  left  San  Francisco  for  a  thousand 
miles'  journey  overland  up  the  Pacific  Coast  to  Vancouver's  Island  in 
Her  Majesty's  dominions,  visiting  various  points  of  interest  en  route. 
We  first  took  a  flying  trip  across  the  Sierra  Nevada  by  the  route  of  the 
Central  Pacific  Railroad  to  Donner  Lake.  The  Sierras,  by  the  way,  are 
not  a  single  mountain,  but  a  billowy  succession  of  mountains  sixty  to  a 
hundred  miles  from  east  to  west.  We  then  visited  a  town  named  for 
me  on  the  railroad,  and  were  met  there  by  Mr.  Delano,  an  'old  friend, 
who  drove  us  over  to  Grass  Valley  and  Nevada,  the  most  extensive 
quartz-mining  region  in  California.  Here  I  had  to  make  two  speeches  in 
one  afternoon,  but  that  was  my  experience  everywhere,  for  I  spoke  not 
less  than  fifty  times  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  had  to  kiss  eight  blooming 
girls  in  my  friend's  parlor.  You  can  imagine  what  heroism  and  self-sac- 
rifice this  required  of  me,  but  I  went  through  it  bravely. 

"  We  then  travelled  by  stage  night  and  day,  north  via  Marysville, 
Oroville,  Chico,  Shasta,  Yreka,  Jacksonville,  Eugene  City,  etc.,  to  Port- 
land, the  last  part  of  the  route — from  Salem  to  Portland — on  a  steamer 
provided  for  us.  At  Portland,  when  we  reached  the  wharf  the  whole 
population  were  out  to  welcome  us,  the  city  radiant  with  flags  and  the 
cannon  roaring  their  greeting.  After  supper  Governor  Bross  and  I  ad- 
dressed the  largest  audience  ever  assembled  there,  which  came  together 
without  handbill  or  notice.  During  our  stay  in  Oregon  we  went  up  the 
Columbia  River,  more  magnificent  than  the  Hudson,  and  by  their 
railroads  around  the  Cascades  and  the  Dalles,  having  three  different 
steamers  for  the  trip,  and  speaking,  of  course,  along  the  route.  At  the 
Dalles  the  river  dashes  through  a  gorge  fifty-nine  yards  wide,  while  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  below  it  is  a  mile  and  a  half  wide.  We  then 
crossed  through  Washington  Territory  to  Olympia,  at  the  foot  of  Puget's 
Sound  ;  and  after  being  received  there,  speaking,  etc.,  had  a  splendid 
sail  on  that  magnificent  inland  sea  to  Victoria,  on  Vancouver's  Island. 
When  we  reached  it,  the  city  was  covered  with  flags,  about  half  British 
and  half  American,  and  crowds  at  the  wharf.  We  stopped  there  thirty 
hours,  having  all  kinds  of  attention,  and  then  started  back  by  steamer, 
my  first  experience  on  an  ocean.  You  have  heard  of  the  sad  loss  of  the 
steamer  Brother  Jonathan,  with  nearly  all  her  passengers.  We  passed 
the  reef  on  which  she  was  wrecked  only  two  hours  before  she  struck  ; 
but  it  was  misty,  and  we  failed  to  meet  her,  as  we  expected. 


262  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

"  On  our  return  to  California  we  visited  the  Yosemite  Valley,  the 
Geysers,  Big  Trees,  and  other  points  of  interest,  the  first  of  which  would 
repay  any  one  in  its  wonderful  scenery,  peerless  in  all  the  world,  for  a 
journey  across  the  continent.  Of  banquets,  dinners,  receptions,  salutes, 
etc.,  there  seemed  no  end  ;  but  the  finest  was  the  farewell  banquet  given 
to  us  by  the  bankers,  merchants,  and  manufacturers  of  San  Francisco  the 
evening  before  we  left,  when  life-size  pictures  of  all  of  us  adorned  the 
walls,  with  pictures  of  all  the  places  we  had  visited  as  far  as  possible  ; 
tickets,  twenty-five  dollars,  and  crowded  at  that.  On  the  2d  instant  we 
bade  good-by  to  hosts  of  new  friends  on  the  wharf,  and  left  San  Fran- 
cisco for  home,  after  the  most  delightful  journey  of  my  life.  We  could 
not  pay  any  bills  anywhere  ;  even  our  hotel  bills  at  San  Francisco,  which 
should  have  been,  from  the  parlors,  etc.,  we  had,  several  hundred  dollars 
each,  were  all  paid  for  us. 

"  We  came  down  the  Pacific  Coast  in  a  mammoth  steamer,  thirty- 
six  hundred  tons  burden  ;  stopped  at  Acapulco  in  Mexico  several 
hours,  during  which  we  roamed  through  the  old  Mexican  town  three 
hundred  years  old,  with  narrow  streets,  which  no  wheeled  vehicle  ever 
rolled  over  ;  and  after  passing  close  to  the  coast  of  Guatemala,  San  Sal- 
vador, Honduras,  Nicaragua,  and  Costa  Rica,  reached  Panama  in  New 
Grenada  Saturday  morning  last.  We  went  ashore  in  one  of  the  steam- 
er's boats  three  hours  ahead  of  the  passengers,  looked  through  the  old 
city— the  first  walled  city  I  ever  was  in — shopped  some,  bought  linen-lawn 
dresses  for  mother  and  you  and  Sister  Carrie.  These  are  all  the  rage 
with  passengers  ;  being  a  free  port  they  don't  cost  half  as  much  as  in 
New  York  ;  but  they  are  bought  more  to  let  friends  know  they  were  re- 
membered so  far  away,  and  to  have  a  dress  bought  in  such  a  distant  land. 
We  crossed  the  Isthmus  by  the  railroad,  which  cost  eight  millions  for  its 
fifty  miles,  enjoying  the  rank  tropical  luxuriance  on  either  side  and  the 
sight  of  the  natives,  who  do  not  believe  in  wearing-apparel  for  their  chil- 
dren. At  Aspinwall  we  embarked  on  this  beautiful  steamer,  which  is  a 
perfect  gem,  and  is  making  her  first  trip. 

"  I  shall  go  home  in  a  day  or  two  after  I  reach  New  York,  being 
anxious  to  see  that  dear  mother  of  mine,  and  hoping  to  find  there  a  letter 
from  you.  But  I  shall  send  the  dress  down  to  you  by  express.  Give  my 
love  to  your  good  husband  and  all  the  dear  children  ;  and  hoping  to  see 
you  this  fall  some  time  in  my  journeyings,  I  am  with  sincerest  affection, 
your  loving  cousin,  SCHUYLER. 

"  P.  S. — 23d,  10  A.M.  Just  arrived  ;  time  from  Aspinwall  six  days, 
eleven  hours,  twenty  minutes  ;  nine  hours  and  forty  minutes  the  quickest 
time  ever  made." 

"  Thus,"  says  Bowles,  "  we  closed  our  tour  of  the 
American  continent  :  from  longitude  one  degree  to  longi- 
tude thirty-four  degrees  ;  from  latitude  fifty  to  latitude 
seven  ;  journeying  some  twelve  thousand  miles,  half  by  sea 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  263 

and  half  by  stage,  crossing  the  great  mountain  ranges  of  the 
continent  ;  exploring  the  forests,  the  mines,  the  commerce 
of  a  new  world  ;  seeing  and  learning  the  field  of  a  new  em- 
pire ;  enjoying  the  most  generous  hospitality  in  every  pos- 
sible form  ;  and  came  back  to  our  homes  in  a  trifle  more 
than  four  months  from  the  day  of  leaving  them.  All  with- 
out the  accident  of  a  finger's  scratch  ;  all  without  breaking 
for  a  moment  the  harmony  of  our  personal  circle.  We 
part  here  ;  we  lay  off  the  robes  of  honored  guests,  that  were 
so  unexpectedly  laid  upon  us,  and  so  richly  endowed 
through  all  our  long  journey  ;  we  return  to  our  accustomed 
lives  ;  but  we  come  back  with  fuller  measure  of  the  Ameri- 
can Republic,  and  larger  faith  in  its  destiny." 
Mr.  Bowles  continues  : 

"  The  Speaker's  public  visit,  or  perhaps  more  properly  his  public  re- 
ception by  the  people  of  the  Pacific  States,  has  been  a  very  remarkable 
one  for  its  generosity  and  universality  and  spontaneity  ;  altogether  un- 
expected by  him,  and  so  still  more  flattering  ;  and  greatly  creditable  to 
the  hospitality  and  genuine  patriotism  of  the  people  of  these  States.  .  .  . 
No  man  ever  had  such  a  popular  welcome  on  these  shores  before.  From 
his  arrival  at  Austin,  Nev.,  where  we  first  struck  the  spreading  tide  of 
Pacific  civilization  and  population,  through  that  State,  through  California 
to  this  city,  and  again  northerly  through  the  State,  through  Oregon  and 
Washington,  and  into  the  British  possessions,  up  to  this  time  [return 
from  the  North  to  San  Francisco]— a  period  of  six  weeks — his  progress 
through  the  country  has  been  a  continuous  popular  ovation.  Everywhere 
the  same  welcome  from  authorities  and  citizens,  the  same  unstinted  prof- 
fer of  every  facility  for  the  journey,  for  seeing  all  parts  of  the  country, 
all  shades  of  its  development  ;  special  coaches,  special  trains,  and  extra 
steamboats  have  been  at  his  service  ;  welcome  everywhere  to  confidence, 
to  fullest  fact  from  most  intelligent  sources  ;  welcome  everywhere  by 
brass  band,  cannon,  military  escort,  public  addresses  ;  and  everywhere, 
even  to  smallest  village  and  tavern  collection  of  neighboring  rancheros, 
the  same  eager  desire  to  hear  the  distinguished  visitor  speak,  and  eke 
then  for  big  and  little  orations  from  his  less  distinguished  compan- 
ions. 

"  Chief  among  the  causes  of  this  hearty  welcome  are  his  conspicuous 
public  position,  and  the  fact  that  he  is  the  first  man  high  in  State  who 
has  ever  visited  the  Pacific  States  for  the  simple  and  sole  reason  of  study- 
ing their  resources  and  interests,  so  as  the  better  to  serve  them  in  the 
Government  ;  his  early  and  steady  friendship  and  leadership  in  impor- 
tant legislation  at  Washington  in  behalf  of  all  this  region  ;  his  wide  per- 
sonal popularity  among  public  men  who  have  ever  known  him,  and  the 


264  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

magnetic  spread  of  this  popularity  along  his  journey  from  his  intercourse 
with  the  people  and  his  speeches  to  them. 

"  Mr.  Colfax  has  freely  gratified  the  popular  desire  everywhere  to 
listen  to  his  voice  ;  no  place  on  his  route  was  too  small,  no  gathering  too 
insignificant,  to  be  turned  off  with  indifference,  when  such  hearty  greeting 
appealed  for  attention  ;  and  he  has  spoken,  long  and  short,  an  average 
of  at  least  once  a  day  since  he  left  the  Missouri  River — some  days  his 
speeches  number  four  or  five.  Never  much  studied,  they  were  rarely 
alike  in  form  ;  never  greatly  elaborated,  they  always  reached  a  high  level 
of  popular  eloquence.  The  average  quality  of  excellence  in  all  his  efforts 
has  surprised  me  ;  I  doubt  if  any  other  public  man  could  speak  so  often 
and  so  much,  and  on  such  various  occasions,  and  succeed  so  well  in  all. 
The  characteristics  of  his  speaking  have  been  practical  wisdom  or  good 
sense,  entire  frankness  in  utterance  of  opinion,  a  charming  simplicity  in 
his  style  of  oratory,  coupled  with  a  ready,  clear  expression  and  a  steady, 
natural  enthusiasm,  which  have  kept  his  hearers  in  constant  sympathy 
with  his  individuality.  The  staple  subjects  he  has  treated  have  been  the 
war  and  the  questions  growing  out  of  it,  the  resources  of  the  Pacific  States 
and  their  development,  mining  and  the  taxation  of  its  results,  the  Mexi- 
can question  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  the  future  destiny  of  the  Repub- 
lic, Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  character,  the  Pacific  Railroad,  and  such  local 
and  personal  matters  as  the  place  and  hour  suggested." 

Samples  of  his  treatment  of  these  themes  are  given  in 
Supplementary  Papers,  "  Bowles's  Across  the  Continent, 
1866."  In  pen-picturing  this  little  band  of  Argonauts,  Mr. 
Bowles  says  of  the  Speaker  : 

"  As  a  public  man  everybody  knows  about  Mr.  Colfax  :  how  promi- 
nent and  useful  he  has  been  through  six  terms  of  Congress,  and  how,  by 
virtue  of  his  experience,  ability,  and  popularity,  he  has  come  to  be 
Speaker,  and  stands  before  the  country  one  of  its  best  and  most  promis- 
ing statesmen.  But  this  is  not  all,  nor  the  best  of  the  man.  He  is  not 
one  of  those  to  whom  distance  lends  enchantment  ;  he  grows  near  to  you 
as  you  get  near  to  him  ;  and  it  is  indeed  by  his  personal  qualities  of  char- 
acter, by  his  simplicity,  frankness,  genuine  good  nature,  and  entire  de- 
votedness  to  what  he  considers  right,  that  he  has  principally  gained  and 
holds  so  large  a  place  in  the  esteem  of  the  nation  and  on  the  public 
( arena.  .  .  .  There  are  no  rough  points  about  him  ;  kindliness  is  the  law 
of  his  nature  ;  while  he  is  never  backward  about  differing  from  others 
nor  in  sustaining  his  views  by  argument  and  votes,  he  never  is  personally 
harsh  in  utterance  nor  unkind  in  feeling  ;  and  he  can  have  no  enemies 
but  those  of  politics,  and  most  of  these  find  it  impossible  to  cherish  any 
personal  animosity  to  him.  In  tact  he  is  unbounded,  and  with  him  it  is 
a  gift  of  nature,  not  a  studied  art  ;  and  this  is,  perhaps,  one  of  the  chief 
secrets  of  his  success  in  life.  His  industry  is  equally  exhaustless  ;  he  is 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  265 

always  at  work,  reading,  writing,  talking,  seeing,  studying  ;  I  can't  con- 
ceive of  a  single  unprogressive,  unimproved  hour  in  all  his  life.  .  .  .  He 
is  one  of  the  men  to  be  tenaciously  kept  in  public  life,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  he  will  be.  Some  people  talk  of  him  for  President  ;  Mr.  Lincoln 
used  to  tell  him  he  would  be  his  successor  ;  but  his  own  ambition  is  wisely 
tempered  by  the  purpose  to  perform  present  duties  well.  He  certainly 
makes  friends  more  rapidly  and  holds  them  more  closely  than  any  public 
man  I  ever  knew  ;  wherever  he  goes  the  women  love  him  and  men  cor- 
dially respect  him  ;  and  he  is  pretty  sure  to  be  always  a  personal  favorite, 
as  now,  with  the  people  at  large." 

He  found  abundant  occupation  at  home  catching  up 
with  business  accumulated  in  his  absence,  and  in  receiving 
his  friends.  Letters  began  to  pour  in  upon  him.  One  from 
Secretary  Stanton  reads  :  "  With  great  pleasure  I  welcome 
your  return  home.  Your  long  journey  and  friendly  words 
by  the  way  were  observed  with  much  interest,  and  with 
many  thanks  for  your  kind  offices.  Your  tour  will  not 
only  be  productive  of  good  to  yourself,  but  cannot  fail  to 
be  useful  to  the  country.  In  respect  to  the  next  Congress, 
the  opinion  that  you  are  to  be  Speaker  is  universal.  I 
have  heard  of  no  combination,  or  even  wish  to  the  con- 
trary, in  any  quarter.  The  next  session  will  be  one  of  deep 
interest  and  fraught  with  great  consequences  to  this  Gov- 
ernment. It  will  gratify  me  very  much  to  meet  and  wel- 
come you  in  Washington." 

The  Hon.  Godlove  S.  Orth,  of  Indiana,  writes  him  : 
''By  the  way,  I  fully  concur  with  the  Tennessee  Legisla- 
ture in  their  'indorsement'  of  the  President.  Too  many 
pardons,  too  much  restoring  of  property,  too  much  leniency 
to  suit  loyal  men.  Treason  is  not  rendered  odious  and 
intelligent  traitors  are  not  punished.  The  soldiers  in  my 
district  swear  about  these  things  almost  equal  to  the  army 
in  Flanders."  Again  :  "I  much  fear,  from  present  indi- 
cations, that  we  may  lose  all  the  benefits  of  the  war  to 
which  we  as  conquerors  are  justly  entitled,  and  that  rebels 
will  soon  stand  in  the  position  they  would  have  occupied 
had  Grant  surrendered  to  Lee."  The  Rev.  Theodore 
L.  Cuyler,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  writes  him  :  "  May  God 
direct  you  and  your  fellow-legislators  in  the  most  impor- 
tant sessions  of  the  approaching  Congress  !  That  devil  of 


266  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

slavery  '  goeth  not  out  but  by  prayer  and  fasting.'  '  Mr. 
Edward  McPherson  writes  him  :  "  I  watched  your  journey 
with  interest  and  with  pleasure,  marked  the  heartiness  and 
enthusiasm  of  your  receptions,  and  the  handsome  style  in 
which  you  maintained  the  honors  of  your  position,  and 
filled  the  expectations  of  your  friends."  Mr.  John  D. 
Defrees  writes  him  :  "  A  few  men  who  pretend  to  be  in 
the  confidence  of  the  President  say  that  he  means  to  have 
his  policy  tested  in  the  election  of  Speaker,  but  I  don't 
believe  it.  If  he  has  the  common-sense  that  I  think  he 
has,  he  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  such  test.  It  is  not 
worth  your  while,  however,  to  commit  yourself  on  any 
question.  You  are  strong  enough  to  stand  upon  your  own 
ground."  The  Hon.  Charles  Upson,  of  Michigan,  writes 
him  :  "  Rebel  stock  has  risen  rapidly  within  a  few  weeks, 
and  now  its  holders  begin  to  demand  things  as  their  rights, 
when  just  before  they  would  have  been  willing  to  accept 
such  terms  as  the  general  Government  might  dictate. 
Congress  should  provide  for  reconstruction,  and  the  loyal 
citizens  should  be  allowed  to  participate  in  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  loyal  governments  there." 

He  received  scores  of  such  letters  as  these,  many  of 
them  expressing  uneasiness  and  dissatisfaction  with  the 
tendency  of  political  affairs.  It  was  as  if  the  body  politic 
felt  the  symptoms  of  approaching  illness,  and  hastened  to 
consult  the  family  physician.  He  diagnosed  the  patient's 
case  very  well,  as  will  be  seen  later.  In  November  he 
writes  Mrs.  Woodhull  from  South  Bend  :  "  I  am  beset 
on  every  hand  to  lecture  on  my  overland  trip,  and  have  ac- 
cepted about  a  dozen  invitations — all  I  have  time  for — de- 
clining scores  of  them,  though  they  offered  one  hundred  to 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  night.  I  spoke  Tuesday 
night  to  an  immense  crowd  at  Indianapolis  ;  to-morrow 
night  I  speak  at  Valparaiso  ;  Saturday  at  the  Michigan 
College  at  Hillsdale  ;  Monday  at  Mishawaka  ;  Tuesday 
here  ;  Wednesday  at  Niles  ;  Thursday  at  Milwaukee  ;  Fri- 
day at  Chicago.  Start  Monday,  the  i3th,  for  the  East  ; 
speak  at  Pittsburg  the  i4th  ;  at  Wheeling  the  i5th  ;  and 
then  to  Washington,  to  look  out  that  I  am  not  voted  out 


THIRTY-EIGHTH   CONGRESS.  267 

of  the  Speakership,  which  don't  seem  dangerous,  but  will 
bear  watching.  In  my  own  district  I  speak  to  my  con- 
stituents without  charge — my  rule  always.  But  outside 
I  shall  receive  seven  or  eight  hundred  dollars,  besides 
the  pleasure  of  visiting.  The  lecture  is  very  long,  nearly 
two  hours,  but  at  Indianapolis  those  who  got  in — though 
the  building  holds  two  thousand,  hundreds  didn't — stuck 
it  out  till  the  last,  the  theme  being  a  novel  one.  I  had  to 
decline  invitations  at  German  town,  Westchester,  etc., 
which  would  have  brought  me  near  you  ;  but  the  time — 
ah  !  why  can't  we  make  the  time  when  we  need  it  ?"  He 
delivered  this  lecture,  whenever  he  could  find  time,  for  two 
years,  making  hosts  of  new  friends,  and  clearing  twelve 
thousand  dollars  by  the  work.  "  Don't  quit,"  his  friends 
wrote  him  ;  "  you  are  carrying  on  a  campaign."  The 
money  was  an  object  to  him.  He  was  born  poor  ;  all  the 
property  he  possessed  he  had  made  dollar  by  dollar  ;  his 
station  necessitated  considerable  expense,  though  he  lived 
modestly  ;  he  was  obliged  to  earn  money. 

Since  it  exhibits  his  feelings  on  another  subject,  the  fol- 
lowing is  taken  from  the  same  letter  to  Mrs.  Woodhull  : 
"  There  isn't  any  i  fair  charmer  '  at  Blank,  or  elsewhere; 
so  you  guessed  wrongly.  People  marry  me  to  every  lady 
I  am  respectfully  polite  to  ;  but  though  I  know  I  ought  to 
marry,  situated  as  I  am,  and  mother  would  like  me  to  do 
so,  yet  I  have  not  the  faintest  idea  of  it.  I  have  no  vows 
against  it ;  but  it  will  never  come  till  I  meet  some  one 
whom  I  can  love  and  who  will  love  me  like  the  dear  wife 
who  is  in  heaven,  and  I  see  no  probability  of  that.  I 
expect  to  get  out  of  this  public  life  and  travel,  and  read 
books  at  home.  That  is  my  ideal  of  life — smoking  in- 
cluded, of  course.  My  love  to  Cousin  George  and  the 
children,  especially  that  mischievous  Schuyler  boy,  whom  I 
hope  loves  his  mother  as  much  as  does  her  affectionate 
cousin,  SCHUYLER." 

In  this  lecture  upon  his  journey  across  the  continent, 
he  dwelt  with  great  earnestness  upon  the  importance  of 
the  Pacific  Railroad,  as  a  national,  a  political,  a  military, 


268  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

a  commercial  necessity.     This  part  of  the  lecture  ended  as 
follows  : 

"  You  cannot  realize  here  in  what  endearing  language  the  settlers  of 
that  distant  coast  speak  of  the  States  they  have  left.  Where  they  were 
born  ;  where  father  and  mother  still  live  to  send  them  blessings,  which  it 
takes  a  month  for  the  mail  to  convey  ;  where  kith  and  kin  lie  buried  in 
the  village  churchyard — that,  and  not  California,  is  their  home.  It  is 
this  recollection  of  home  which  binds  that  remote  part  of  the  Union  so 
closely  to  us.  It  was  this  which  crushed  out  the  ambitious  suggestions 
of  disloyal  men,  who  once  dominated  in  California,  in  favor  of  a  Pacific 
Republic.  It  was  this  which,  in  the  hour  of  our  country's  need,  poured 
princely  contributions  into  the  coffers  of  the  sanitary  and  Christian  com- 
missions, those  twin-angels  of  mercy.  It  was  this  which,  in  the  darkest 
hour  of  the  struggle,  kept  all  that  coast  so  true  and  devoted  to  the  national 
cause. 

"  It  is  for  such  a  people,  who  have  already  sent  us  a  thousand  millions, 
extracted  from  sterile  mountains  and  broken  ravines,  for  whom  I  plead 
when  I  urge  the  speediest  possible  construction  of  the  Pacific  Railroad, 
and  not  as  a  boon  to  them  alone,  for  its  increase  of  our  national  wealth 
will  speedily  pay  back  to  the  Treasury  far  more  than  the  bonus  which 
now  aids  in  its  construction.  But  I  plead  for  it,  too,  for  our  own  national 
development  and  grandeur.  Already  I  see  in  the  swift-coming  future — 
not  weak  and  sparsely  settled  Territories  upon  its  route,  but  rich  and 
growing  States,  with  the  iron  horse  speeding  his  way  through  all  the  val- 
leys and  over  the  mountains  of  the  interior  ;  not  vast  unfilled  and  unim- 
proved plains,  but  irrigation  and  artesian  wells  combining  to  make  the 
desert  blossom  as  the  rose  ;  not  scores  of  millions  per  year  from  the  gold 
and  silver-bearing  rocks  the  Creator  has  reserved  for  ages  for  our  own 
times,  but  hundreds  of  millions.  And  our  Republic,  bound  together  then 
as  never  before,  firmly  as  the  eternal  hills  over  which  this  great  road  will 
run — already  with  its  vast  agricultural  resources  the  granary  of  the 
world  ;  with  these  increased  facilities  ;  with  cheaper  transportation  ;  with 
illimitable  mineral  fields  ;  with  ability  to  develop  their  teeming  wealth  ; 
with  improved  processes  of  mining  ;  with  the  gigantic  unfolding  and  dis- 
closure of  our  yet  unimproved  capacities — shall  thus  become  indeed,  as 
our  beloved  but  martyred  President  predicted  to  me,  on  that  last  day, 
when  having  lived  for  us  so  faithfully  he  was  about  to  die  for  us,  the 
Treasury  of  the  World!" 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS. 
1865-1867. 

SERENADE  SPEECH  AT  WASHINGTON.— POINTS  OUT  THE  TRUE  RECON- 
STRUCTION POLICY. — RE-ELECTED  SPEAKER. — LECTURING. — DECLINES 
THE  EDITORSHIP  OF  THE  New  York  Tribune. — LAST  MEETING  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES  CHRISTIAN  COMMISSION. — ANTAGONISM  BE- 
TWEEN CONGRESS  AND  THE  PRESIDENT. — CORRESPONDENCE  AND 
SERENADE  SPEECHES.  —  His  POLICY.  —  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT 
PROPOSED  BY  CONGRESS. — PARLIAMENTARY  RULING,  ROUSSEAU  AND 
GRINNELL. — RECEPTION  AT  HOME. — CANVASS. — COLFAX  AND  THE 
IRISH. — ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  PRESIDENCY. — ESTIMATES  OF  THE 
SPEAKER. 

MR.  COLFAX  arrived  at  the  National  Capital  about  the 
middle  of  November.  The  one  subject  of  solicitude  among 
the  people,  North  and  South,  was  the  restoration  of  the  late 
insurgent  States  to  their  original  status  in  the  Union. 
Absolutely  ostracizing  Union  men,  and  substantially  re- 
enslaving  the  freed  men,  the  ex-rebel  States  had  conceded 
just  enough  to  secure  President  Johnson's  recognition. 
They  had  repudiated  the  ordinances  of  secession  and  the 
Confederate  debt,  and  had  ratified  the  (thirteenth)  Con- 
stitutional Amendment  abolishing  slavery.  They  had 
elected  their  quota  of  pardoned  Confederates  to  Congress. 
Backed  by  the  President,  these  pseudo-Representatives 
demanded  their  old  seats  in  Congress,  without  delay  or 
parley.  The  immediate  and  pressing  question  was,  whether 
Congressmen,  in  obedience  to  their  States,  could  with- 
draw from  the  National  Capital,  levy  war  to  dismember 
the  nation,  prosecute  it  until  they  were  exhausted,  and, 
upon  being  beaten  in  the  field,  return  to  the  Capital  as  the 
Representatives  of  their  States,  and  resume  their  seats  in 
Congress  as  if  only  the  ordinary  vacation  had  occurred. 


2/0  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

The  Northern  people  narrowly  escaped  the  idiocy  of  allow- 
ing them  to  do  this.  The  Northern  people  narrowly 
escaped  the  ineffable  meanness  of  leaving  their  faithful 
allies  in  the  South,  black  and  white,  in  the  absolute  power 
of  a  class  whose  tender  mercies  in  that  connection  were 
cruelties. 

Saturday  evening,  November  i8th,  Colfax  was  sere- 
naded. In  response,  he  declared  in  substance  that  the  re- 
construction of  the  late  Confederate  States  must  precede 
their  restoration  to  their  original  standing  in  the  Union. 
This  was  the  platform  upon  which  he  challenged  the  Rep- 
resentatives of  the  people,  soon  to  assemble  to  elect  him 
Speaker,  or  to  repudiate  him,  and  upon  which  he  also 
challenged  the  approval  or  disapproval  of  the  people  them- 
selves. Following  is  the  important  part  of  the  speech  : 

"It  is  auspicious  that  the  ablest  Congress  that  ever  sat  during  my 
knowledge  of  public  affairs  meets  next  month,  to  face  and  settle  the  mo- 
mentous questions  which  will  be  brought  before  it.  It  will  not  be  gov- 
erned by  any  spirit  of  revenge,  but  solely  by  duty  to  the  country.  I  have 
no  right  to  anticipate  its  action,  nor  do  I  confine  myself  to  any  inflexible, 
unalterable  policy,  but  these  ideas  occur  to  me,  and  I  speak  them  with 
the  frankness  with  which  we  should  always  express  our  views.  Last 
March,  when  Congress  adjourned,  the  States  lately  in  rebellion  were 
represented  in  a  hostile  Congress  and  Cabinet,  devising  ways  and  means 
for  the  destruction  of  the  country.  It  may  not  be  generally  known,  but 
it  has  been  represented  to  me,  on  the  testimony  of  members  of  the  so- 
called  Confederate  Congress,  that  General  Lee,  the  military  head  of  the 
Rebellion,  declared  last  February,  in  his  official  character,  that  the  contest 
was  utterly  hopeless  ;  but  their  Congress  and  Cabinet  determined  to  con- 
tinue the  struggle,  and  after  that  time  twenty  thousand  men  fell  on  both 
sides  in  the  battles  around  Petersburgh  and  Richmond  and  elsewhere. 
Since  the  adjournment  of  the  United  States  Congress  not  a  single  rebel- 
lious State  surrendered,  not  an  army  laid  down  its  weapons,  not  a  regi- 
ment abandoned  their  falling  cause  ;  but  the  Union  armies  conquered  a 
peace  not  by  any  promise  or  voluntary  submission,  but  by  the  force  of 
arms.  Some  of  these  members  of  the  so-called  Confederate  Congress, 
who,  at  our  late  adjournment  last  March,  were  struggling  to  blot  this 
nation  from  the  map  of  the  world,  propose,  I  understand,  to  enter  Con- 
gress on  the  opening  day  at  its  session  next  month,  and  resume  their 
former  business  of  governing  the  country  they  struggled  so  earnestly  to 
ruin.  They  say  they  have  lost  no  rights.  It  seems  as  if  burning  the 
ships  of  our  commerce  on  the  ocean,  starving  our  prisoners  on  the  land, 
and  raising  armies  to  destroy  the  nation  would  impair  some  of  these 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  2/1 

rights  until  their  new  governments  were  recognized  by  Congress.  The 
Constitution,  which  seems  framed  for  every  emergency,  gives  to  each 
House  the  exclusive  right  to  judge  of  the  qualifications  and  of  the  elec- 
tion returns  of  its  members,  and  I  apprehend  they  will  exercise  the  right. 

"  Congress  having  passed  no  law  on  reconstruction,  President  John- 
son prescribed  certain  action  for  these  States,  which  he  deemed  indispen- 
sable to  their  restoration  to  their  former  relation  to  the  Government, 
which  I  think  eminently  wise  and  patriotic.  First,  That  their  conven- 
tions should  declare  the  various  ordinances  of  secession  null  and  void  ; 
not  as  some  have  done,  merely  repealing  them,  but  absolutely  without 
any  force  and  effect.  Secondly,  That  their  Legislatures  should  ratify  the 
constitutional  amendment  extinguishing  slavery,  that  the  cause  of  dis- 
sension and  rebellion  might  be  utterly  extirpated.  Thirdly,  That  the 
whole  United  States  repudiate  the  rebel  debt,  though  by  its  terms  it  will 
be  a  long  while  before  it  falls  due,  as  it  was  made  payable  six  months 
after  the  recognition  of  the  Confederacy  by  the  United  States. 

"  But  there  are  other  terms  upon  which  I  think  there  is  no  division 
among  the  loyal  men  of  the  Union,  to  wit : 

"  i.  That  the  Declaration  of  Independence  must  be  recognized  as  the 
law  of  the  land,  and  every  man,  alien  and  native,  white  and  black,  pro- 
tected in  the  inalienable  and  God-given  rights  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness.  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  that  Emancipation  Proclamation 
which  is  the  proudest  wreath  in  his  chaplet  of  fame,  not  only  gave  free- 
dom to  the  slave,  but  declared  that  the  Government  would  maintain  that 
freedom.  We  cannot  abandon  them  and  leave  them  defenceless  at  the 
mercy  of  their  former  owners.  They  must  be  protected  in  their  rights  of 
person  and  property.  These  free  men  must  have  the  right  to  sue  in 
courts  of  justice  for  all  just  claims,  and  to  testify  also,  so  as  to  have 
security  against  outrage  and  wrong.  I  call  them  free  men,  not  freed 
men.  The  last  phrase  might  have  answered  before  their  freedom  was 
fully  secured,  but  they  should  be  regarded  now  as  free  men  of  the  Republic. 

"  2.  The  amendments  to  their  State  constitutions,  which  have  been 
adopted  by  many  of  their  State  conventions  so  reluctantly,  under  the  press- 
ure of  dispatches  from  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of  State,  should 
be  ratified  by  a  majority  of  their  people.  We  all  know  that  but  a  very 
small  portion  of  their  voters  participated  in  the  election  of  delegates  to 
these  conventions  ;  and  nearly,  if  not  all,  the  conventions  have  declared 
them  [the  constitutions]  in  force,  without  any  ratification  by  the  people. 
When  the  crisis  is  passed,  can  they  not  turn  around  and  say  that  these 
were  adopted  under  duress,  by  delegates  elected  by  a  meagre  vote  under 
provisional  governors  and  military  authorities,  and  never  ratified  by  a 
popular  vote?  and  could  they  not  turn  the  anti-Lecompton  argument 
against  us,  and  insist,  as  we  did,  that  a  constitution  not  ratified  by  the 
people  may  have  legal  effect,  but  no  moral  effect  whatever  ? 

"  3.  The  President  has  on  all  occasions  insisted  that  they  should  elect 
Congressmen  who  could  take  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  act  of  1862  ;  but 


2/2  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

in  defiance  of  this,  and  insulting  to  the  President  and  the  country,  they 
have,  in  a  large  majority  of  instances,  voted  down  mercilessly  Union  men 
who  could  take  the  oath,  and  elected  those  who  boasted  that  they  could 
not,  would  not,  and  would  feel  disgraced  it  they  could.  Without  mention- 
ing names,  one  gentleman  elected  in  Alabama  by  a  large  majority  de- 
clared in  his  address  to  the  people  before  the  election,  '  that  the  iron  pen 
of  history  would  record  the  Emancipation  Act  as  the  most  monstrous  deed 
of  cruelty  that  ever  darkened  the  annals  of  any  nation  ;  '  and  another 
one,  who  avowed  that  he  gave  all  possible  aid  and  comfort  to  the  Rebel- 
lion, denounced  the  Congress  of  1862  as  guilty  in  enacting  such  an  oath. 
The  South  is  filled  with  men  who  can  take  the  oath  which  declares,  '  I 
have  not  voluntarily  taken  part  in  the  Rebellion.'  Every  conscript  in 
the  Southern  army  can  take  the  oath,  because  he  was  forced  into  the 
ranks  by  their  conscription  act  ;  and  every  man  who  stayed  at  home  and 
refused  to  accept  civil  or  military  positions  can  take  the  oath.  But  these 
were  not  the  choice  of  the  States  lately  in  rebellion. 

"  4.  While  it  must  be  expected  that  a  minority  of  these  States  will 
cherish,  for  years  perhaps,  their  feelings  of  disloyalty,  the  country  has  a 
right  to  expect  that  before  their  members  are  admitted  to  share  in  the 
government  of  this  country,  a  clear  majority  of  the  people  of  each  of 
these  States  should  give  evidence  of  their  earnest  and  cheerful  loyalty. 
The  danger  now  is  in  too  much  precipitation.  Let  us  rather  make  haste 
slowly,  and  we  can  then  hope  that  the  foundations  of  our  Government, 
when  thus  reconstructed  on  the  basis  of  indisputable  loyalty,  will  be  as 
eternal  as  the  stars." 

The  orator  ended  by  expressing  his  confidence  in  the 
President.  The  National  Intelligencer  criticised  "  this  dis- 
closure of  a  national  programme  in  advance  of  the  Presi- 
dent's Message,"  by  a  man  in  Mr.  Colfax's  position,  as  "  a 
remarkable  violation  of  precedent,  and  '  not  in  the  highest 
taste/  "  It  disapproved  of  the  matter  still  more  than  of 
the  manner  of  the  speech.  "  President  Johnson,"  said 
Mr.  Colfax  afterward,  "  always  denounced  this  speech  as 
the  initiation  of  the  Congressional  policy  that  antagonized 
with  his."  It  was  not  so  much  a  stealing  of  the  Presi- 
dent's thunder  as  it  was  a  taking  up  of  his  discarded  thun- 
der. How  it  struck  the  people  may  be  seen  in  the  follow- 
ing extracts  from  papers  and  letters. 

The  Chicago  Republican  of  November  2ist,  1865,  said  : 

"  It  has  been  the  fortune  of  Mr.  Colfax  on  several  remarkable  occa- 
sions to  declare  the  universal  sentiment  of  the  people,  but  he  never 
spoke  more  exactly  to  the  purpose  than  in  the  address  of  Saturday  even- 
ing at  Washington,  which  appeared  in  yesterday's  Republican.  He  gives 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  273 

notice  that  none  of  the  rebel  States  will  be  admitted  to  representation  in 
Congress  at  present ;  and  he  lays  down  the  conditions  on  which  the  work 
of  reconstruction  ought  to  proceed.  There  is  not  one  of  these  conditions 
which  the  people  of  the  loyal  States  do  not  ardently  approve  and  insist 
upon.  A  righteous  and  a  timely  word  is  the  end  of  much  controversy 
and  doubt." 

The  Indianapolis  Journal  of  November  24th,  1865,  said  : 
"  The  speech  of  Mr.  Colfax,  in  response  to  a  serenade  a  few  nights 
ago,  was  evidently  carefully  prepared,  in  substance  if  not  in  verbiage. 
He  knew  that  what  he  said  would  be  accepted  on  all  hands  as  an  expres- 
sion of  the  purpose  of  the  Union  men  in  Congress  in  regard  to  the  re- 
habilitation of  the  rebel  States,  and  he  would  have  been  culpably  careless 
not  to  have  digested  his  subject  well.  We  have  no  doubt  he  spoke  the 
sentiments  of  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  of  his  party,  both  in  and 
out  of  Congress.  He  certainly  spoke  ours.  And  we  can  heartily  indorse 
all  he  said,  and  not  less  heartily  what  he  avoided  saying.  He  was 
equally  wise  in  his  silence  as  in  his  utterance.  Disputed  points  which 
are  not  party  issues,  and  should  never  be,  he  who  for  the  time  is  re- 
garded as  representing  a  party  has  no  right  to  interpolate  in  his  author- 
ized declarations." 

The  New  York  Times  said  : 

"  Let  no  man  who  cares  anything  for  what  is  likely  to  happen  the 
coming  winter  in  Congress  fail  to  read  carefully  the  speech  of  Schuyler 
Colfax,  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  the  last  Congress, 
and  who  will  unquestionably  be  re-elected  to  the  same  position  in  the 
next  Congress  next  month.  No  public  declaration  has  been  made  by  any 
man  this  season  which  has  so  much  significance  as  this  speech  of  Mr. 
Colfax.  It  was  evidently  made  deliberately  and  with  the  design  that  the 
country  should  gather  from  it  the  probable  course  of  Congress  at  the 
coming  session.  We  most  heartily  indorse  all  its  positions.  They  are 
sound,  patriotic,  and  safe." 

Bishop  E.  R.  Ames,  of  the  Methodist-Episcopal  Church, 
wrote  him  : 

"  I  thank  you  most  heartily  for  the  speech  delivered  by  you  in  Wash- 
ington a  few  evenings  since.  Stand  by  the  sentiments  there  expressed, 
and  depend  upon  it  the  country  will  stand  by  you.  Those  short  sen- 
tences now  are  worth  volumes  hereafter.  Some  acts  of  the  President 
have  rather  staggered  the  faith  of  loyal  men,  but  they  do  not  give  him 
up  or  cast  him  off.  I  congratulate  you  on  the  prospect  of  your  re-elec- 
tion, and  on  what  lies  beyond." 

Mrs.  Kate  R.  Kilburn,  of  Elkhart,  Ind.,  wrote  him  : 
"  It  is  the  first  statesman-like,  earnest,  and  clear  view  that  has  ema- 
nated from  any  high  political  source.     It  is  thoroughly  moral,  Christian- 


274  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

ized,  and  refined.  It  is  the  emanation  of  a  noble  and  brave  heart,  far 
above  the  political  '  trimming  '  of  the  time.  You  have  never  said  any- 
thing so  acceptable  to  the  people,  so  American  and  progressive  in  its 
sentiment,  without  the  least  smack  of  fanaticism.  When  you  and  I  are 
dead  and  mouldered  into  dust,  that  speech  will  be  placed  in  the  archives 
of  history  and  devoutly  read  by  those  who  can  appreciate  the  labor  and 
trial  through  which  America  passed,  even  while  the  first  halo  of  peace 
was  upon  her,  in  order  that  she,  above  all  nations,  should  establish  the 
supremacy  of  right  over  wrong." 

The  Hon.  James  G.  Elaine,  of  Maine,  wrote  him  : 

"  You  have  spoken  '  the  word  in  season  '  most  fitly.  Your  speech  is 
admirably  received,  throughout  New  England  at  least,  and  I  doubt  not 
in  all  the  loyal  States.  I  congratulate  you  on  having  given  a  good  key- 
note for  the  rallying  of  our  party,  and  for  the  policy  of  Congress  with 
reference  to  the  great  question  of  reconstruction." 

The  Hon.  Charles  Sumner,  of  Massachusetts,  wrote 
him  : 

"  You  will  see  by  the  papers  that  you  have  '  hit  between  wind  and 
water.'  The  public  has  been  longing  to  find  some  way  of  escape  from 
this  Presidential  '  experiment.'  I  contented  myself  with  requiring  '  irre- 
versible guarantees.'  These  were  essential.  It  was  madness  not  to  re- 
quire them  at  the  beginning.  Think  of  seven  months  given  up  to  chaos 
and  anarchy,  with  license  to  rebels  !  All  this  has  been  lost  to  the  pro- 
ductive energies  of  the  nation  and  to  that  peace  which  we  all  so  much 
desire  ;  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  guardian  of  our  national 
finances,  has  been  one  of  the  vehement  godfathers  of  this  fatal  policy, 
so  costly  to  the  country.  Reviewing  history,  I  can  call  to  mind  no  in- 
stance of  such  a  terrible,  far-reaching  blunder.  Congress  must  do  what 
it  can  to  repair  the  damage.  The  newspapers  say  that  the  New  York 
Custom  House  killed  Preston  King.  This  is  a  mistake.  It  was  his  par- 
ticipation in  this  destructive  policy.  When  I  saw  him  in  October,  this 
weight  was  then  on  his  mind — heavier  than  twenty-five  pounds  of  shot 
on  his  body.  I  sorrow  for  him,  but  am  not  surprised." 

Of  these  things  he  wrote  his  mother  :  "  My  speech  has 
made  quite  a  sensation.  I  understand  the  President  don't 
like  it,  but  I  have  scores  of  congratulatory  letters.  It 
puts  up  the  fence  higher  than  he  desires,  but  it  is  the  right 
doctrine.  As  grandmother  used  to  say,  '  I  feel  it  in  my 
bones.'  " 

Without  a  competent  leader  for  their  armies,  the  devo- 
tion, the  resources,  and  the  energies  of  the  Northern  people 
would  not  have  availed  to  save  the  Union.  Without  a 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  2/5 

competent  leader  for  their  Representatives  and  their  voters, 
their  just  objections  to  the  foiled  Confederate  States  im- 
mediately taking  their  old  places  in  the  Union  would  not 
have  availed  to  prevent  it.  The  President  whom  they  had 
elected  having  practically  gone  over  to  the  Confederate 
side,  leadership  naturally  devolved  on  the  Speaker  of  the 
popular  House  of  Congress.  Fortunately,  Schuyler  Colfax 
was  equal  to  the  occasion.  Competent  to  ascertain  and 
wisely  express  the  wishes  of  the  Northern  people,  and  brave 
enough  to  take  the  responsibility  of  doing  so,  the  Speaker 
and  the  country  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  those  wishes 
instantly  become  purposes.  Between  his  speech  of  the 
i8th  of  November  and  the  assembling  of  Congress  there 
was  such  a  response  from  every  organ  of  loyal  opinion  in 
the  North  as  effectually  deterred  Mr.  Johnson  or  his 
Southern  Representatives  from  seriously  attempting  to 
carry  out  their  theories  of  immediate  restoration,  by  insist- 
ing on  taking  part  in  the  organization  of  the  House.  The 
critical  point  in  the  momentous  work  of  reconstruction  was 
thus  passed  in  safety,  and  the  matter  left  where  it  properly 
belonged — in  the  hands  of  Congress. 

An  exciting  time  in  organizing  the  House  was  never- 
theless expected,  and  long  before  the  hour  of  meeting  the 
halls,  galleries,  and  corridors  were  choked  with  anxious 
throngs.  Mr.  Colfax  had  been  nominated  for  Speaker  in 
caucus  without  dissent.  Mr.  Edward  McPherson,  Clerk 
of  the  preceding  House,  excluded  the  Southern  claimants 
from  the  roll,  and  twice  in  succession  declined  to  recog- 
nize Mr.  Maynard,  of  Tennessee,  before  he  uttered  the  de- 
cisive words  :  "  The  Clerk  cannot  recognize  as  entitled  to 
the  floor  any  gentleman  whose  name  is  not  on  this  roll." 
Some  discussion  ensued,  but  it  wore  itself  out  ineffectually. 
A  ballot  was  taken  for  Speaker,  Colfax  receiving  139  votes, 
and  Mr.  Brooks,  of  New  York,  36.  Mr.  McPherson,  hav- 
ing enjoyed  the  felicity  of  rendering  his  country  an 
important  service  in  a  crisis,  announced  the  result,  and 
stepped  aside. 

In  the  place  thus  made  vacant  appeared  the  man  but  a  moment  be- 
fore elected  to  the  position  by  the  largest  political  majority  ever  given  to 


2/6  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

a  Speaker  of  the  House.  A  well-proportioned  figure  of  medium  size,  a 
pleasing  countenance,  often  radiant  with  smiles,  were  characteristic  of 
him  upon  whom  all  eyes  were  turned.  In  the  past  a  printer  and  editor 
in  Indiana,  now  in  Congress  for  the  sixth  term,  and  elected  Speaker  the 
second  time,  Schuylcr  Colfax  stood  to  take  the  oath  of  office  and  enter 
upon  the  discharge  of  most  difficult  and  responsible  duties."  1 

The  old-new  Speaker  briefly  referred  to  the  coming  of 
peace  and  the  duties  it  had  brought.  He  said,  in  part  : 

"  The  Rebellion  having  overthrown  constitutional  State  Government 
in  many  States,  it  is  yours  to  mature  and  enact  legislation  which,  with 
the  concurrence  of  the  Executive,  shall  establish  them  anew  on  such  a 
basis  of  enduring  justice  as  will  guarantee  all  necessary  safeguards  to  the 
people,  and  afford  what  our  Magna  Charta— the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence— proclaims  is  the  chief  object  of  government — protection  to  all  men 
in  their  inalienable  rights.  The  world  should  witness,  in  this  great  work, 
the  most  inflexible  fidelity,  the  most  earnest  devotion  to  the  principles  of 
liberty  and  humanity,  the  truest  patriotism,  and  the  wisest  statesmanship. 

"  Heroic  men  by  hundreds  of  thousands  have  died  that  the  Republic 
might  live.  The  emblems  of  mourning  have  darkened  White  House  and 
cabin  alike  ;  but  the  fires  of  civil  war  have  melted  every  fetter  in  the 
land,  and  proved  the  funeral  pyre  of  slavery.  It  is  for  you,  Representa- 
tives, to  do  your  work  as  faithfully  and  well  as  have  the  fearless  saviors 
of  the  Union  in  their  more  dangerous  field  of  duty.  Then  we  may  hope 
to  see  the  vacant  and  once  abandoned  seats  around  us  gradually  filling 
up,  until  this  hall  shall  contain  Representatives  from  every  State  and  dis- 
trict, their  hearts  devoted  to  the  Union  for  which  they  are  to  legislate, 
jealous  of  its  honor,  proud  of  its  glory,  watchful  of  its  rights,  and  hostile 
to  its  enemies.  And  the  stars  on  our  banner,  that  paled  when  the  States 
they  represented  arrayed  themselves  in  arms  against  the  nation,  will  shine 
with  a  more  brilliant  light  of  loyalty  than  ever  before." 

A  week  later  the  committees  were  announced  by  the 
Speaker.  Two  new  committees — on  Appropriations  and 
on  Banking  and  Currency — had  been  authorized  in  order 
to  relieve  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  of  part  of  its 
work.  Justin  S.  Morrill,  of  Vermont,  was  appointed 
Chairman  of  Ways  and  Means,  relieving  Thaddeus  Stevens, 
who  went  to  the  head  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations. 
Theodore  M.  Pomeroy,  of  New  York,  was  made  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Banking  and  Currency  ;  Hiram 
Price,  of  Iowa,  Chairman  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  Commit- 
tee ;  N.  P.  Banks,  of  Massachusetts,  Chairman  of  the  For- 

1.  History  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress,  W.  H.  Barnes,  1868. 


THIRTY-NINTH    CONGRESS.  2/7 

eign  Affairs  Committee,  vice  Henry  Winter  Davis,  at  this 
moment  dying  (he  died  December  3oth)  ;  Columbus 
Delano,  of  Ohio,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Claims. 
The  chairmen  of  the  other  important  committees  were  the 
same  as  in  the  last  Congress.  "  Notwithstanding  all  the 
errors  which  were  unavoidable  elements  in  the  work,"  says 
Mr.  Barnes,  "  committees  were  never  better  constituted 
than  those  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress." 

A  joint  committee  of  fifteen  on  reconstruction  having 
been  agreed  upon  by  the  two  Houses,  the  Speaker  an- 
nounced, on  the  i4th  of  December,  the  members  on  the 
part  of  the  House — Thaddeus  Stevens,  Elihu  B.  Washburne, 
Justin  S.  Morrill,  Henry  Grider,  John  A.  Bingham,  Roscoe 
Conkling,  George  S.  Boutwell,  Henry  T.  Blow,  Andrew  J. 
Rogers.  On  the  2ist  of  December  William  Pitt  Fessen- 
den,  James  W.  Grimes,  Ira  Harris,  Jacob  M.  Howard, 
Reverdy  Johnson,  and  George  H.  Williams  were  an- 
nounced as  the  members  of  the  Reconstruction  Committee 
on  the  part  of  the  Senate.  These  were  strong  men,  and 
although  there  was  impatience  at  the  deliberateness  with 
which  they  felt  their  way,  they  commanded  the  confidence 
of  the  people,  and  ultimately  justified  the  wisdom  of  their 
selection.1 

During  the  holiday  recess  the  Speaker  repeated  his 
lecture  "  Across  the  Continent  "  at  several  places,  the  citi- 
zens giving  him  a  complimentary  banquet  in  Baltimore, 
and  Mayor-elect  Hoffman  presiding  for  him  at  Cooper  In- 
stitute, New  York.  At  Albany,  the  Assembly  being  in 
session,  he  was  waited  on  by  a  committee  of  the  House, 
invited  to  a  seat  on  the  floor,  and  welcomed  by  the  Hon. 
Lyman  Tremaine,  "  not  only  as  the  third  officer  in  the  Gov- 
ernment, but  as  a  statesman  whose  name  has  been  honor- 
ably identified  with  its  history  during  the  most  trying  days 
of  the  Republic."  An  allusion  to  "  our  lamented  Presi- 
dent "  opened  the  way  for  Colfax,  after  speaking  of  his 
interest  in  his  native  State,  to  pay  an  eloquent  tribute  to 
Lincoln,  and  from  that  to  appeal  for  support  for  those 

1.  "  The  party  will  cheerfully  acquiesce  in  letting  in  the  seceded  States,  "Medill  writes 
Colfax,  "  when  they  are  willing  to  accept  the  terms  this  committee  will  prescribe." 


2/8  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

who  remain.  "  God  buries  his  workmen,  but  the  work 
goes  on."  Somewhat  later  he  repeated  the  lecture  the 
last  time  for  the  season,  having  declined  one  hundred  and 
seventy-three  invitations  to  deliver  it  in  as  many  cities. 

At  a  reception  given  him  at  Lockport,  N.  Y.,  on  the  4th 
of  January,  1866,  he  alluded  hopefully  to  the  prospective 
action  of  the  Executive  and  of  Congress  on  the  question  of 
reconstruction.  He  believed  the  President  to  be  honest 
and  patriotic  ;  that  he  would  faithfully  discharge  the 
duties  devolved  on  him  as  Chief  Magistrate  ;  and  that  he 
would  also  recognize  the  duties  and  obligations  devolved 
upon  Congress,  a  separate  and  independent  branch  of  the 
Federal  Government.  He  had  faith  that  the  clouds  which 
now  seemed  to  cast  a  gloom  over  the  political  horizon 
would  disappear,  and  that  harmony  and  good  feeling 
would  prevail  between  the  different  branches  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

The  Republicans  parted  with  the  President  whom  they 
had  elected,  and  from  whom  they  had  expected  so  much, 
and  with  everything  yet  at  stake,  with  the  greatest  reluc- 
tance, and  only  when  he  left  them  absolutely  no  other  alter- 
native. 

Requested  by  Greeley,  Sinclair,  and  others  connected 
with  the  New  York  Tribune  to  take  editorial  charge  of  that 
paper  during  the  summer,  "  because,"  wrote  Mr.  Sinclair, 
"  Mr.  Greeley  sadly  needs  rest  and  relaxation,  and  thinks 
you  better  capable  than  any  one  else  of  judging  of  the 
political  stiuation,  and  of  the  various  questions  and  meas- 
ures as  they  shall  come  up,"  he  replied  : 

"  If  there  were  no  canvass  impending,  and  if  this  were  the  short  ses- 
sion, Mr.  Greeley 's  complimentary  request  and  your  determination  would 
tempt  me  to  try  it,  doubtful  as  I  should  regard  my  success.  But  now  it 
is  absolutely  impossible  unless  I  abandon  my  district,  and  I  don't  think 
of  that.  Our  earnest  friends  there  would  not  risk  a  new  candidate.  And 
if  we  are  to  go  down  by  our  President  and  his  patronage  and  all  he  can 
influence  warring  on  us,  I  ought  to  stand  by  to  the  last."  l 

1.  At  this  time  a  man  who  had  built  up  one  of  the  great  newspapers  of  the  country 
proposed  to  join  him  (and  furnish  two  thirds  of  the  money)  in  purchasing  a  controlling 
interest  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  which,  it  was  understood,  could  be  had  for  three  hun- 
dred and  six  thousand  dollars.  He  need  not  have  removed  from  South  Bend  or  have  re- 
tired from  Congressional  life.  He  was  to  negotiate  the  purchase,  because  he  was  on  the 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  2/9 

He  had  a  Fourth  of  July  oration  engaged  and  a  dozen 
repetitions  of  his  lecture  "  for  the  benefit  of  our  Indiana 
Soldiers'  Home,  which  I  wish  to  help  ;"  and  "  if  a  candidate, 
and  my  health  and  strength  hold  out,  I  shall  make  seventy 
to  a  hundred  speeches  this  fall." 

February  nth  (1866)  the  United  States  Christian  Com- 
mission  held  its  fourth  and  last  anniversary  in  the  Hall  of 
the  House  of  Representatives.  The  assemblage  was  of  the 
choicest  spirits  in  the  land.  On  taking  the  Chair,  after 
the  opening  exercises,  Mr.  Colfax  spoke  briefly  of  the  trials 
and  losses,  the  sacrifices  and  sufferings  of  the  war,  the 
happy  return  of  peace,  and  passed  a  feeling  encomium  on 
the  noble  work  of  the  Commission.  The  meeting  was  long 
and  interesting.  The  Christian  and  the  Sanitary  Com- 
missions, the  fairest  flowers  of  our  civilization,  were  the  in- 
spiration of  piety,  humanity,  and  patriotism.  The  citizens 
gave  them  money  and  supplies  and  delicacies  for  the  sol- 
diers to  the  value  of  more  than  twenty  millions,  and  they 
sent  thousands  of  delegates  to  the  camps,  the  battle-fields, 
and  hospitals,  bearing  the  gifts  of  'both  human  and  divine 
sympathy  and  support.  Upon  news  of  battle,  the  most 
skilful  surgeons  went  to  the  front,  and  women  left  homes 
of  ease  and  luxury  to  act  as  nurses.  Not  only  was  the 
soldier's  physical  comfort  looked  after,  his  heart  was  made 
strong  by  proofs  that  his  heroism  was  appreciated  at  home. 
The  moral  effect  on  the  citizen  of  this  care  for  the  soldier 
was  hardly  less  beneficent.  All  distinctions  had  vanished 
in  view  of  the  common  peril,  but  citizen  and  soldier  were 
physically  far  apart,  and  these  organizations  brought  them 
and  kept  them  together. 

"We  have  in  the  Chair  our  honored  Speaker,"  said 
Bishop  Simpson,  "  who  presides  over  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, and  who  has  shown  a  deep  interest  in  our 
work."  Alluding  to  the  place  "  where  the  nation  meets, 

"  inside. "  His  connection  with  the  paper,  however,  beyond  the  use  of  his  name,  was  to 
be  as  perfunctory  as  he  chose  to  have  it.  "When  you  come  to  be  run  f  or  Vice-Presi- 
dent,  withdraw  your  name  if  you  think  best,  and  sell  out  when  you  run  for  President 
eight  or  ten  years  hence,  for  I  am  confident  you  will  be  President  after  Grant  gets  his 
turn."  He  did  not  accept  this  tempting  proposal.  Either  it  could  not  be  done  or  he 
did  not  desire  to  do  it. 


28O  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

through  its  chosen  ones,"  and  the  presence,  inclusive  of 
the  highest  and  best  in  the  land,  the  Bishop  thought  it  a 
fit  place  and  presence  for  the  Commission  "  to  pass  gently 
away.  It  has  led  a  noble  life.  It  was  baptized  in  prayer, 
worked  amid  suffering  and  affliction,  leaned  on  the  affec- 
tions of  the  wise  and  the  pure,  received  aid  from  all  classes, 
and  ministered  to  multiplied  thousands.  Its  dying  mo- 
ment has  come,  and  it  breathes  its  last  breath  sweetly  and 
gently,  as  the  fabled  notes  of  the  dying  swan.  The  nation 
draws  near,  utters  its  benediction,  and  buries  it  with 
honor." 

February  226.  memorial  services  were  held  in  the  House 
in  honor  of  Henry  Winter  Davis,  lately  deceased.  All  the 
insignia  of  mourning  were  displayed  in  the  Hall.  The 
Senators,  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  army  and  navy 
officers,  members  of  the  legations  and  of  the  Cabinet,  were 
in  attendance.  Introducing  Mr.  Creswell,  friend  and  col- 
league of  the  dead  statesman,  the  Speaker  laid  his  own 
wreath  on  the  bier.  Said  he  : 

"  The  world  honors  courage — the  courage  of  the  martyr,  of  the  patriot 
soldier,  of  the  pest-house  nurse.  But  there  is  the  courage  of  the  states- 
man as  well,  nobly  illustrated  by  him  whose  national  services  we  com- 
memorate to-day.  Inflexibly  hostile  to  oppression,  the  champion  ever  of 
the  helpless  and  the  down-trodden,  fearless  and  eloquent,  he  is  mourned 
all  over  the  continent  ;  and  from  Patapsco  to  the  Gulf  the  blessings  of 
'  them  that  had  been  ready  to  perish  '  follow  him  to  his  tomb.  It  is  fit- 
ting that  the  nation  pay  him  marked  honors  in  this  Hall,  though  he  died 
in  private  station." 

Speaking  at  a  fair  in  Washington  for  the  benefit  of  the 
orphans  of  the  war,  June  i8th,  1866,  he  said  : 

"  War  always  smites  with  a  heavy  hand.  It  deranges  business,  deso- 
lates vast  tracts  of  country,  loads  the  people  with  debt  and  taxes,  crowds 
graveyards,  causes  anguish  to  many  a  home  circle,  and  fills  the  land 
with  maimed  and  diseased.  But  sad  as  all  this  is,  it  makes  orphans,  too, 
in  every  direction.  The  bullet  or  cannon-ball  which  robs  a  soldier  of  life, 
and  his  wife  of  joy  and  hope,  often  consigns  a  helpless  family  to  orphan- 
age and  destitution.  The  Treasury  relieves  their  most  pressing  need  by 
pensions,  but  cannot  provide  educational  culture,  guidance,  and  protec- 
tion. It  is  fitting,  therefore,  that  the  humane  should  constitute  themselves 
guardians  of  this  sacred  trust.  These  orphans  are  children  of  the  State 
—children  of  the  land  their  fathers  died  to  save.  One  of  the  most  tender 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  28 1 

titles  of  the  Creator  in  the  sacred  record  is  the  Father  of  the  fatherless. 
Let  us  strive,  though  as  far  removed  from  Him  as  the  finite  from  the  in- 
finite, to  emulate  this  privilege  and  duty.  And  may  this  work,  so  auspi- 
ciously begun  here,  spread  till  all  within  our  ocean-bounded  Republic 
have  the  opportunity  of  aiding  in  this  interesting  and  holy  work." 

Having  been  asked  to  introduce  Colonel  Roberts,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Fenian  Brotherhood,  the  Speaker  prefaced  the 
introduction  with  the  following  remarks  : 

"  Wherever  there  is  a  people  throughout  the  world  struggling  for  lib- 
erty and  self-government,  we  are,  as  a  nation,  in  a  great  degree  respon- 
sible for  their  aspirations.  Our  fathers  established  on  this  continent  a 
Republic  which  has  become  the  greatest  and  freest  on  the  globe.  On 
each  recurring  anniversary  of  independence  our  orators  proclaim  that  in 
our  republican  institutions — which  form  the  soul  of  our  national  life — we 
are  an  exemplar  for  all  others  to  follow,  a  model  for  others  to  imitate,  a 
beacon-light  whose  rays  are  destined  to  light  up  many  lands  now  under 
the  thraldom  of  tyranny.  While  I  feel  the  restraints  of  international  law 
upon  me  as  a  citizen,  I  cannot  repress  the  sympathy  I  feel  for  all  who  seek 
to  enjoy  the  institutions  which  have  made  us  so  powerful  and  so  free. 
There  are  two  rules  of  action  in  the  world  :  one,  the  golden  rule,  which 
teaches  us,  as  individuals,  to  do  unto  others  as  we  would  have  them  do 
unto  us  ;  the  other  is  the  silver  rule,  to  do  unto  others  as  they  have  done 
unto  us,  which  is  the  general  rule  among  nations.  And  if  we  had  treated 
nations  exactly  as  they  have  treated  us  during  our  recent  struggle  for  ex- 
istence, no  country  in  the  civilized  world  could  reproach  us. 

"  But,  without  further  remarks,  I  will  close  by  saying,  that  while  I 
would  not  step  beyond  the  law,  I  will  not  deny  that  I  have  sympathized 
with  the  Hungarians  in  their  endeavors  for  liberty,  in  the  uprising  of  the 
Neapolitans  against  the  tyranny  of  the  Bourbon  Bomba,  in  the  stern 
resolve  of  the  Italians  to  be  free  from  the  Alps  to  the  Adriatic,  in  the 
heroic  struggles  of  the  Republicans  in  Mexico  against  the  Imperial 
tyranny  forced  on  them  by  foreign  bayonets,  and  in  the  longings  of  the 
Irish  for  a  larger  liberty  and  wiser  government  in  that  green  isle  of  the 
sea.  If  we  are  faithful  to  the  dead  of  the  Revolution,  and  if  we  believe 
in  the  excellence  of  free  institutions,  we  cannot  and  should  not  deny  or 
repudiate  these  sympathies  for  those  who  desire  to  walk  in  our  footsteps 
and  to  follow  our  example." 

The  difference  between  Congress  and  the  President 
grew  rapidly  distinct  and  irreconcilable.  February  iQth 
he  vetoed  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  Bill,  and  on  the  226.  he 
made  his  "  dead  duck"  speech  in  front  of  the  White  House. 
New  life  stirred  in  the  adherents  of  the  South.  Papers  like 
the  Chicago  Times  called  upon  the  President  to  arrest  Sum- 


282  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

ner,  Stevens,  Phillips,  and  their  confederates,  and  close 
Congress  if  the  Southern  Representatives  and  Senators 
were  not  at  once  admitted.  Senator  Garret  Davis,  of  Ken- 
tucky, in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  defined  the  position  of 
the  Confederate  party  as  follows  : 

"It  is  the  President's  right,  it  is  his  constitutional  function,  to  ascer- 
tain who  constitute  the  two  Houses  of  Congress.  The  members  of  the 
Senate  who  are  in  favor  of  the  admission  of  the  Southern  Senators  could 
get  into  a  conclave  with  those  Southern  Senators  any  day,  and  they  would 
constitute  a  majority  of  the  Senate.  The  President  of  the  United  States 
has  the  constitutional  option — it  is  his  function,  it  is  his  power,  it  is  his 
right— and  I  would  advise  him  to  exercise  it,  to  ascertain,  where  there  are 
two  different  bodies  of  men  both  claiming  to  be  the  Senate,  which  is  the 
true  Senate.  If  the  Southern  members  and  those  who  are  in  favor  of 
admitting  them  to  their  seats  constitute  a  majority  of  the  whole  Senate, 
the  President  has  a  right — and,  by  the  Eternal  !  he  ought  to  exercise 
that  right,  forthwith,  to-morrow,  or  any  day — to  recognize  the  opposition 
in  this  body  and  the  Southern  members,  the  majority  of  the  whole  body, 
as  the  true  Senate." 

Seeing  that  all  was  yet  in  peril,  the  Union  men  began 
holding  meetings,  and  soon  gave  the  tide  of  public  senti- 
ment a  decided  set  in  favor  of  Congress.  The  Senate  re- 
covered sufficient  tone  by  the  Qth  of  April  to  pass  the  Civil 
Rights  Bill  over  the  disingenuous  veto  of  the  President, 
and  the  House  passed  it  the  same  day.  The  Speaker  voted 
for  it,  and  after  the  vote  made  the  following  announce- 
ment : 

"  The  yeas  are  122,  and  the  nays  41.  Two  thirds  of  the  House  hav- 
ing, upon  this  reconsideration,  agreed  to  the  passage  of  the  bill,  and  it 
being  certified  officially  that  a  similar  majority  of  the  Senate,  in  which  the 
bill  originated,  also  agreed  to  its  passage,  I  do,  therefore,  by  the  author- 
ity of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  declare  that  this  bill,  entitled 
'  An  act  to  protect  all  persons  in  the  United  States  in  their  civil  rights, 
and  furnish  the  means  of  their  vindication,'  has  become  a  law." 

The  next  day  the  Speaker,  Senator  Henry  S.  Lane,  and 
others  were  serenaded.  In  responding,  Colfax  ranked  the 
Civil  Rights  Bill  with  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  and 
with  the  Constitutional  Amendment  abolishing  slavery. 
He  said  he  wished  that  Congress  had  been  called  together 
in  April  last  (1865).  He  believed  that  in  that  case  a  policy 
of  reconstruction  would  have  been  jointly  agreed  upon  in 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  283 

which  the  South  would  have  acquiesced.  Alluding  to  com- 
plaints of  delay,  he  said  it  was  only  within  one  month  that 
Congress  had  been  able  to  obtain  official  knowledge  of  the 
situation.  But  it  long  ago  indicated  its  will,  and  Congress 
was  the  law-making  power,  in  the  test  oath  and  in  its  in- 
structions to  the  Vice-President  not  to  count  the  votes  of 
the  rebel  States  for  President  in  1865.  "  Unless  we  are 
false  to  ourselves,"  he  ended,  "  false  to  our  country,  false 
to  the  brave  men  who  left  happy  homes  to  die  for  the 
Union,  we  shall  proclaim  and  enact  that  loyal  men  shall 
govern  a  preserved  Republic."  Whereupon  Senator 
Chandler,  of  Michigan,  said  to  him  :  "  You  got  it  all  into 
one  sentence." 

Having  been  taken  to  task  for  favoring  the  admission 
of  Tennessee,  he  wrote,  January  25th,  to  his  friend,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Eddy  : 

"  I  have  been  for  the  admission  of  Tennessee  since  last  October,  pub- 
licly so  here,  before  my  election  as  Speaker.  You  can  answer  the  ques- 
tion, why,  if  Maynard  [Representative-elect  from  Tennessee]  is  excluded 
from  Congress,  don't  you  exclude  Johnson  from  the  White  House  ?  But 
it  would  mislead  hundreds  of  thousands  ;  and  the  difference  between  the 
issue  on  the  other  States  and  the  issue  on  Tennessee — which  would  be  the 
one  we  would  have  to  fight  out  if  we  exclude  Tennessee — would  be,  by 
the  difference  in  doubtful  votes,  just  the  difference  between  carrying  the 
next  Congress,  and  losing  it.  Hence,  as  Tennessee  abolished  slavery 
herself,  voluntarily,  disfranchised  her  rebels,  had  large  portions  [of  her 
people]  loyal  and  true  all  through  the  war,  is  more  loyal  to-day  than  Ken- 
tucky, has  a  Radical  Governor,  elected  a  Congressional  delegation,  all  of 
whom  can  take  the  oath,  two  of  whom  fought  through  the  war  with  us,  I 
am  in  favor  of  making  her  an  exception,  recognizing  her  government  as 
loyal  by  joint  resolution — thus  giving  Congressional  sanction  to  it — and 
then  admitting  her  members  on  the  oath  of  1862.  If  a  rupture  is  to 
come — which  I  hope  may  not — I  don't  want  the  President  to  have  any 
such  excuse  as  that  we  kept  his  State  out  and  treated  him  as  an  alien." 

Having  made  the  Civil  Rights  Bill  a  law  in  spite  of  the 
Presidential  veto,  the  two  Houses  busied  themselves  in 
placing  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  Bill  on  the  statute-book. 
It  was  designed  to  protect  the  helpless  and  friendless  freed- 
men,  and  the  bill  became  a  law  about  the  middle  of  July. 
The  Reconstruction  Committee  reported,  January  22d,  a 
joint  resolution  proposing  a  constitutional  amendment, 


284  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

basing  Representatives  and  direct  taxes  on  actual  voters, 
instead  of  population.  On  the  last  day  of  January  it  was 
adopted  by  the  House,  120  to  46,  sixteen  not  voting.  It 
was  discussed  in  the  Senate,  off  and  on,  till  the  9th  of 
March,  and  upon  a  vote  it  was  lost,  five  Radical  and  six 
Conservative,  or  Johnson,  Senators  joining  with  the  regular 
Democratic  strength,  from  various  motives,  to  defeat  it. 
In  his  unfortunate  speech  of  February  22d,  the  President 
denied  the  right  of  Congress  to  pass  upon  the  question  of 
reconstruction.  Congress  answered  by  the  passage  of  a 
concurrent  resolution,  to  the  effect  that  "no  Senator  or 
Representative  shall  be  admitted  into  either  branch  of 
Congress  from  any  of  the  said  [insurrectionary]  States, 
until  Congress  shall  have  declared  such  State  entitled  to 
representation. " 

On  the  5th  of  May  the  Reconstruction  Committee  again 
reported  a  joint  resolution  proposing  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution,  which  ultimately  became,  between  the  two 
Houses,  the  Fourteenth  Amendment.  It  was  adopted  by 
the  House  May  loth,  and  in  the  course  of  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Sinclair,  Colfax  writes  : 

"  I  wish  the  Tribune  was  more  cordial  in  its  indorsement  of  Congress. 
I  know,  with  the  difficulties  around  us,  we  can't  quite  reach  its  standard 
of  choice  as  to  legislation  and  terms  ;  but  I  think  the  firmness  and  in- 
flexibility and  compactness  of  our  members,  with  all  their  patronage 
hazarded  and  lost,  indeed,  by  their  devotion  to  principle,  worthy  of  high 
praise.  We  cannot  go  further  than  we  can  command  a  two-thirds  vote 
in  both  Houses.  On  O wens' s  plan,  we  should  have  lost  a  majority  of 
the  New  York  and  Indiana  Congressmen,  and  with  that  all  hopes  of  a  two- 
thirds  vote,  and  gone  from  here  into  the  canvass,  warring  within  our  own 
ranks,  to  a  certain  defeat.  We  should  have  lost  New  Jersey  and  Connect- 
icut, probably  the  Pacific  States  and  Pennsylvania,  besides  New  York 
and  Indiana.  So  we  agreed  on  the  best  we  could  do,  and  passed  it  by  a 
magnificent  and  inspiriting  vote  in  the  House — just  as  John  Bright  takes 
what  he  can  get  in  Parliament,  not  what  he  wants." 

In  reply  to  Judge  Turner,  a  constituent  and  friend  at 
Crown  Point,  Ind.,  who  wrote  him  "  there  is  an  impres- 
sion in  the  district  that  you  sympathize  with  Johnson,"  he 
writes  : 

"  Mr.  Luther  wrote  me  about  it,  and  I  replied,  expressing  my  chagrin 
that  any  one  should  doubt  me  at  home,  when  here  the  President  charges 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  285 

me  with  being  the  main  cause  of  the  inflexibility  of  the  House,  by  my 
serenade  speech  of  last  November,  the  Radical  committees  I  appointed 
invariably,  and  my  personal  influence.  If  constituents,  on  a  flying 
rumor,  doubt  one  whose  whole  public  life  has  been  faithful  to  principle, 
it  is  only  proof  that  he  has  lived  in  vain.  The  Southern  rebels  charge 
that  my  serenade  speech  of  last  November  locked  the  door  of  Congress 
against  them,  and  I  guess  they  know.  My  only  desire  now  is  that  Con- 
gress will  agree  on  some  plan  which,  obtaining  the  needed  security  for 
the  future  from  the  rebel  States,  shall  not  take  on  any  loads  of  popular 
prejudice  that  can  be  avoided  ;  so  that  it  will  be  hailed  as  wiser  and  more 
popular  than  the  President's  policy,  and  on  which  we  can  carry  all  the 
doubtful  districts  and  hold  the  next  Congress  as  firmly  as  this." 

The  Union  Convention  of  the  Ninth  Congressional  Dis- 
trict of  Indiana  met  at  Westville,  July  xoth.  The  county 
conventions,  as  held,  from  the  beginning  of  the  year, 
had  indorsed  the  sitting  member  in  flattering  terms.  The 
Hon.  Charles  W.  Cathcart,  six  years  before  Mr.  Colfax's 
competitor  for  Congress,  introduced  a  resolution,  Febru- 
ary 22d,  in  the  La  Porte  County  Convention,  which  was 
adopted,  to  wit  : 

"  That  the  continued  service  of  our  Representative  in  Congress  has 
only  proved  in  an  eminent  degree  his  increased  fitness  for  the  position  ; 
that  we  most  cordially  reciprocate  that  kindly  regard  for  his  present  con- 
stituency which  induced  him  to  express  a  preference  for  our  service, 
rather  than  for  a  removal  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  ;  and  that  we 
respectfully  protest  against  any  arrangement  which  would  deprive  us  of 
his  services  as  our  Representative,  excepting  only  a  call  from  the  whole 
people  of  the  United  States  to  the  highest  office  in  their  gift — a  position 
which  we  are  confident  his  eminent  abilities,  his  high  moral  attributes, 
and  his  wonderful  industry  would  enable  him  to  fill  with  singular  advan- 
tage to  our  beloved  country." 

This  may  stand  for  numbers  of  similar  expressions  of 
conventions,  newspapers,  and  admirers  from  that  day  on- 
ward. The  Union  Convention  of  Porter  County  having 
nominated  him  for  President  in  1868,  the  South  Bend  Regis- 
ter criticised  the  action  as  premature.  The  Valparaiso  Re- 
public replied  :  "  Oh,  no  ;  he  may  be  wanted  to  run  with 
Grant,  so  that  if  Grant  is  killed,  as  they  kill  all  our  Presi- 
dents, the  Government  won't  be  Tylerized." 

At  the  district  convention  a  letter  from  him  was  read. 
"  Last  winter,"  said  the  writer,  "  when  I  was  suggested  by 
many  papers  of  the  State  for  Senator,  I  published  a  card, 


286  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

saying  I  was  not  and  never  had  been  a  candidate  for  that 
distinguished  position  ;  that  I  preferred  service  in  the 
House  ;  but  if  any  considerable  part  of  the  convention  de- 
sire to  bring  forward  another  candidate,  I  will  not  stand 
in  the  way.  In  that  event  I  want  the  St.  Joseph  County 
delegation  to  withdraw  my  name,  and  pledge  me  to  the 
support  of  the  nominee,  whoever  he  may  be."  Of  politics 
he  wrote,  in  part,  as  follows  : 

"  The  issue  now  is  as  vital  as  in  1862  or  in  1864.  It  is,  '  Which  shall 
govern  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  loyalty  or  disloyalty  ?  '  The  power 
to  carry  on  war  implies  the  power  to  prescribe  the  terms  of  peace.  The 
President  has  recognized  this.  Congress  deems  that  he  did  not  go  far 
enough.  He  required  the  ratification  of  the  amendment  abolishing 
slavery.  Congress  requires  the  ratification  of  another  [the  fourteenth]. 
Nearly  four  fifths  of  Congress  agree  to  it.  The  Union  party  stand  upon 
it.  I  am  willing  to  stand  or  fall  with  it.  Rebels  must  not  return  to  in- 
creased power  over  the  Union  men  they  have  slain.  Never  did  a  nation 
offer  more  lenient  terms — that  representation  shall  be  based  upon  those 
admitted  to  political  rights  ;  that  the  civil  rights  of  all  persons  shall  be 
maintained  ;  that  the  national  debt  and  the  pension  list  shall  be  preserved 
inviolate  ;  the  rebel  debt  and  compensation  for  slaves  be  repudiated  and 
barred  ;  that  men  who  have  once  broken  faith  with  the  nation  in  high 
office  shall  be  excluded  from  office.  Our  fathers  sternly  disfranchised 
and  expatriated  the  Tories  of  the  Revolution.  We  seek  not  revenge, 
only  defence  ;  and  the  necessity  of  our  action  is  proved  by  the  unanimity 
with  which  all  the  clans,  North  and  South,  who  have  opposed  us  from  the 
first,  do  so  now.  The  rebel  hope  in  1864  was  in  the  Northern  voters 
rather  than  in  the  Southern  soldiers.  Their  last  hope  is  to  win  at  the 
polls  this  time.  Stand  by  your  colors  again,  and  the  Fortieth  Congress 
will  be  complete,  and  with  loyal  Representatives  and  Senators,  and  the 
Union  will  enter  on  a  new  career  of  progress,  prosperity,  and  power." 

After  the  reading  of  the  letter  the  Speaker  was  re- 
nominated  without  dissent.  Upon  this  the  Washington 
Chronicle  commented  as  follows  : 

"  Of  all  our  statesmen,  none  has  been  more  useful  than  Speaker  Col- 
fax  to  the  Republic  during  the  war,  and  especially  in  the  present  Con- 
gress, when  upon  the  unity  and  sagacity  of  the  majority  in  the  two 
Houses  depend  our  liberties  and  the  blessings  secured  by  the  bravery  of 
our  lamented  dead  and  illustrious  living.  His  counsel  has  been  always 
wise,  clear,  and  firm  ;  his  suggestions  replete  with  a  shrewd  and  original 
philosophy  ;  and  his  work  and  bearing  in  and  out  of  Congress  at  once  an 
example  to  others  and  a  proof  that  he  is  worthy  of  the  high  trust  con- 
ferred upon  him.  To  him  is  the  country  indebted  for  those  early  intima- 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  287 

tions  which,  while  pointing  out  the  path  of  duty  to  public  men,  antici- 
pated and  guarded  against  what  was  then  conceived  to  be  only  a  possible 
departure  from  rectitude  in  the  Executive." 

The  Senate  materially  changed  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment as  it  came  from  the  House,  and  adopted  it  on  the 
7th  of  June.  The  House  concurred  in  the  Senate  amend- 
ments June  2oth,  and  the  President  washed  his  hands  of 
it.  July  yth  Governor  Brownlow  wrote  the  Speaker  that 
"  the  Johnson  faction  in  the  [Tennessee]  Legislature  is 
bolting,  on  advice  from  the  White  House,  to  prevent  the 
ratification  of  the  amendment,  but  will  ratify  it  neverthe- 
less," which  they  did,  and  July  24th  Congress  admitted 
Tennessee  by  joint  resolution,  President  Johnson  signing 
the  resolution  perfunctorily,  saying  he  did  not  approve  of 
it.  The  firing  of  one  hundred  guns  in  the  grounds  south 
of  the  White  House  announced  the  reinstatement  of  the 
first  rebel  State,  and  the  Union  men  could  not  have  been 
in  better  shape  to  go  to  the  country. 

An  unpleasant  incident  in  the  House  raised  the  question 
of  the  proper  exercise  of  the  Speaker's  functions  in  certain 
contingencies,  and  the  construction  of  certain  rules.  A 
war  of  words  between  General  Rousseau,  of  Kentucky,  and 
Mr.  Grinnell,  of  Iowa,  grew  from  bad  to  worse,  until 
Rousseau  personally  assaulted  Grinnell  in  the  Capitol, 
striking  him  several  times  with  a  rattan,  while  three  of 
Rousseau's  friends  stood  by  armed,  presumably  to  assist 
him  if  necessary. 

The  House  ordered  an  inquiry,  and  intrusted  the  select 
committee  appointed  to  make  it  to  recommend  suitable 
action  in  their  report.  A  majority  of  the  committee  rec- 
ommended, first,  the  expulsion  of  Rousseau  ;  secondly, 
the  censure  of  Grinnell  ;  thirdly,  the  arraignment  of  the 
three  witnesses  for  examination  by  the  House.  The 
minority  recommended  the  reprimanding  of  Rousseau  by 
the  Speaker  at  the  bar  of  the  House,  instead  of  expulsion, 
agreeing  in  other  respects  with  the  majority. 

The  report  of  the  committee  having  been  read,  Mr. 
Wilson,  of  Iowa,  entered  a  point  of  order  that,  under  the 
rules,  the  House  was  barred  from  censuring  Grinnell,  be- 


288  SCHUYLER  COLFAX.' 

cause  it  declined  to  take  notice  of  his  language  at  the  time, 
and  permitted  him  to  proceed.  The  Speaker  overruled  the 
point  of  order,  holding  that  "  calling  to  order  is  except- 
ing to  words  spoken  in  debate  ;''  and  that  this  was  done 
at  the  time  by  several  gentlemen,  and  finally,  against  usage, 
by  the  Speaker  himself  ;  upon  which  Grinnell  remarked 
that  he  was  through.  The  question,  he  said,  had  also  been 
settled  by  the  resolution  ordering  the  inquiry  ;  which  gave 
the  committee  full  jurisdiction  in  the  case,  with  power  to 
report  whatever  they  deemed  necessary  to  vindicate  the 
privileges  of  the  House  and  protect  its  members. 

Every  one  could  see,  after  the  assault,  that  Grinnell 
should  have  been  silenced,  as  well  as  called  to  order.  As 
if  anticipating  criticism,  the  Speaker  held  that  in  cases  of 
"  personal  explanation,"  his  duty  was  confined  to  ruling 
on  points  of  order  raised  by  members.  "  The  Speaker 
cannot  compel  a  member  to  stop  his  speech,  while  any 
single  member  on  the  floor  can,  by  demanding  that  he 
shall  not  proceed  further,  unless  by  consent  of  the  House  ;" 
the  presumption  being  that  if  none  of  the  members  does 
this,  the  House  consents  that  the  speech  shall  be  continued. 

There  was  a  long  and  interesting  debate,  with  a  politi- 
cal tinge,  Rousseau,  a  gallant  Union  general,  being  an 
adherent  of  Johnson,  and  Grinnell  a  Congressional  Radi- 
cal. Mr.  Spalding  and  Mr.  Raymond  were  disposed  to 
criticise  the  Speaker  for  not  having  silenced  Grinnell  on 
his  own  initiative.  The  House  should  have  protected 
Rousseau,  Mr.  Raymond  said.  His  assailant  was  called  to 
order,  but  not  silenced,  which  he  held  should  have  been 
done  by  the  Speaker. 

Mr.  Garfield  contended,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  House 
gave  General  Rousseau  all  the  protection  he  or  his  friends 
asked  for.  "  The  course  of  the  Speaker  in  cases  of  '  per- 
sonal explanation  '  is,  in  my  judgment,  the  correct  one," 
said  he,  4<  and  the  only  one  which,  under  the  spirit  and 
genius  of  our  Government,  can  be  or  ought  to  be  toler- 
ated." If  the  House  consents  to  personalities,  Mr.  Gar- 
field  continued  in  substance,  the  Speaker  is  overruled,  he 
being  the  agent  and  not  the  principal.  He  is  not,  as  in 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  289 

some  countries,  part  of  the  Administration,  with  power  to 
control  debate  as  he  chooses.  He  is  the  executive  officer 
of  the  House,  bound  by  its  rules.  If  members  fail  to  call 
down  a  disorderly  member,  the  inference  is  that  the  House 
desires  him  to  proceed. 

Mr.  Banks  wrote  the  Speaker  :  "  I  have  never  lis- 
tened to  a  parliamentary  decision  so  clearly  and  so  per- 
fectly stated  as  yours  of  to-day  ;"  and  in  the  debate  Banks 
said  :  "  In  my  judgment,  it  was  as  just  as  any  decision 
ever  made  in  any  parliamentary  body.  Any  other  conclu- 
sion would  have  assoiled  the  records  of  the  House  and  de- 
graded the  parliamentary  law  of  the  country." 

The  House  refused  to  expel  Rousseau,  refused  to  cen- 
sure Grinnell,  refused  to  arraign  the  witnesses,  and  simply 
ordered  Rousseau  to  be  reprimanded  by  the  Speaker  at  the 
bar  of  the  House.  Rousseau  appearing,  the  Speaker  said  : 

"  General  Rousseau,  the  House  of  Representatives  has  declared  you 
guilty  of  a  violation  of  its  rights  and  privileges  in  a  premeditated  personal 
assault  upon  a  member  for  words  spoken  in  debate.  This  condemna- 
tion it  has  placed  on  its  journal,  and  has  ordered  that  you  shall  be 
publicly  reprimanded  by  the  Speaker  at  the  bar  of  the  House.  No  words 
of  mine  can  add  to  the  force  of  the  order,  in  obedience  to  which  I  now 
pronounce  upon  you  its  reprimand." 

The  New  York  Tribune,  recalling  the  affrays  in  preced- 
ing Congresses,  said  :  "  This  Congress  will  not  suffer  [in 
the  matter  of  personalities]  by  comparison  with  any  of 
its  predecessors  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century."  This 
trouble  ended,  the  Speaker  writes  his  mother  :  *'  A  very 
trying  day  yesterday  for  me,  deciding  points  of  order, 
questions  of  privilege,  answering  questions,  etc.,  all  day, 
and  wearied  out  at  the  close.  How  did  you  like  my  repri- 
mand of  Rousseau  ?"  Subsequently  he  was  twice  called 
on  to  administer  the  censure  of  the  House,  but  always,  as 
in  this  case,  he  did  it  simply  and  without  ostentation. 

The  session  adjourned  July  28th.  A  press  dispatch 
gives  a  glimpse  of  the  closing  scene.  ''The  hall  and  the 
galleries  were  crowded  with  spectators  watching  with  in- 
terest the  closing  moments  of  a  session  that  will  be  memo- 
rable in  history.  The  Speaker's  valedictory  was  listened  to 


290  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

in  deep  silence,  and  as  he  spoke  the  last  words,  there  was 
an  outburst  of  applause,  Mr.  Stroud,  a  Democrat,  crying 
vehemently  :  '  Three  cheers  for  our  noble  Speaker  !  '  The 
call  was  heartily  responded  to.  Occupying  a  station  full 
of  the  most  perplexing  difficulties,  he  has  filled  it  with 
such  rare  wisdom  and  felicity  as  to  challenge  the  out- 
spoken and  warmest  admiration  of  his  political  adver- 
saries." 

Following  is  a  notice  of  the  Speaker's  receptions,  writ- 
ten about  the  middle  of  March,  1866  : 

"  On  account  of  the  commencement  of  the  night  sessions  in  Congress, 
Mr.  Colfax  has  given  his  last  reception  for  the  season.  As  usual,  the 
house  was  crowded  to  suffocation.  No  other  receptions  could  be  missed 
as  much  as  these  ;  for  while  they  were  frequented  by  people  the  most 
distinguished  and  of  the  highest  position,  so,  too,  they  held  open  wide 
doors  to  the  humble  and  unknown.  Here  the  wise  met  to  converse,  the 
curious  to  see,  the  gay  to  dance  and  have  a  '  good  time,'  each  alike  sure 
of  a  kindly  greeting  from  the  Speaker  and  his  most  amiable  mother  and 
sister.  Mrs.  Matthews  possesses  in  an  eminent  degree  the  perfect  kind- 
ness and  sincerity  of  heart  which  she  has  transmitted  to  her  son.  Her 
duties  as  hostess  in  her  son's  house  have  been  most  onerous.  Yet  no  lady 
in  Washington  has  discharged  the  same  with  greater  acceptance  to  the 
public.  She  exemplifies  the  secret  of  all  true  politeness — kindness.  No 
transitory  honor,  no  exaltation  of  place,  makes  her  other  than  she  was — 
bright,  genial,  and  gentle,  a  Christian  woman,  with  the  milk  of  human 
kindness  in  her  heart  and  words  of  kindness  always  upon  her  lips." 

Mr.  Colfax  arrived  home  August  ist,  crowds  in  waiting 
— **  old  patriarchs  who  always  knew  '  our  boy  Schuyler,' 
middle-aged  men  whom  he  had  gracefully  distanced  in  the 
race  of  life,  and  wondering  children,  to  whom  this  was  a 
holiday,  attending  carriages,  wagons,  nondescript  vehicles 
of  all  sorts,  flags,  banners,  and  bands  playing  '  Home, 
Sweet  Home' — all  in  waiting  to  honor  the  return  of  a  dis- 
tinguished but  simple-hearted  citizen.  Descending  from 
the  railway  platform,  he  was  almost  literally  carried  in 
their  arms  to  an  adjoining  rostrum,  where,  in  intense 
silence,  the  formal  yet  sincere  and  touching  welcome  was 
pronounced  by  Colonel  A.  B.  Wade,  formerly  of  the 
Seventy-third  Indiana  Infantry,  who,  during  the  war,  had 
been  delivered  by  the  personal  exertions  of  Mr.  Colfax 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  29 1 

from  squalid  horrors  and  actual  impending  death  in  Libby 
Prison."  1 

Colonel  Wade  said  in  part  : 

"  We  who  know  you  best  delight  to  point  to  your  private  life,  and 
there  we  find  no  spot  to  dim  its  brightness,  but,  on  the  contrary,  every- 
thing calculated  to  adorn  the  character  of  a  Christian  gentleman.  Would 
time  permit,  I  might  mention  a  thousand  instances  of  disinterested  acts 
of  kindness  which  circumstances  have  enabled  you  to  perform,  knitting 
the  hearts  of  thousands  to  you  in  bonds  that  cannot  be  broken.  As  the 
soldiers'  friend,  your  words  of  encouragement  nerved  the  heart  of  many 
a  soldier  on  the  battle-field.  You  have  cheered  the  sick  and  wounded  in 
many  a  hospital,  and  your  generous  bounty  and  influence  have  solaced 
and  relieved  many  of  the  inmates  of  rebel  prisons.  Nor  have  your  efforts 
in  their  behalf  ceased  with  the  return  of  peace.  The  wounded  and  the 
maimed,  the  bereaved  and  the  stricken  ones,  and  the  orphans  of  those 
who  fell  in  their  country's  cause  find  in  you  their  warmest  friend  and 
most  powerful  advocate." 

He  then  thanked  Mr.  Colfax  in  the  name  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  for  the  honors  he  in  his  public  life  had  won  for 
them  ;  they  and  all  loyal  citizens  felt  that  he  was  a  promi- 
nent part  of  the  trustworthy  bulwark  that  shielded  them 
from  public  enemies.  Says  Mr.  Edwards  : 

"  The  orator  closed,  and  for  a  moment  we  trembled  for  the  silver- 
tongued  statesman,  who  hitherto  had  gracefully  addressed  Presidents  and 
Senators,  but  whose  owner's  heart  seemed  just  then  more  ready  to  sit 
down  and  weep  on  the  threshold  of  its  bereaved  home  than  to  dictate 
the  words  it  were  far  easier  to  feel.  But  soon  the  ringing  sentences  be- 
gan to  flow  and  the  returning  guest  to  feel  literally  at  home.  Then  the 
shouts  and  the  procession  through  the  streets,  whose  doors  and  windows 
fairly  shone  with  nodding  heads  and  bright  faces.  For  once  in  our  life, 
amid  this  unostentatious,  spontaneous  excitement  of  that  pure  inland 
town,  we  discovered  a  prophet  having  honor  and  enjoying  love  '  in  his 
own  country.'  We  would  rather  have  that  honor  and  that  love  than  the 
Speakership.  Twice  happy  the  man  who  enjoys  both  at  the  hands  of  the 
American  people  !"  2 

1.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Arthur  Edwards,  of  the  Northwestern  Christian  Advocate. 

2.  "  The  speeches  and  proceedings  of  the  day  were  reported  by  leading  daily  news- 
papers, but  none  except  an  observer  caught  the  real  spirit  and  beautiful  motive  in  the 
event.    Plain,  hearty,  honest  farmers  by  hundreds  and  hundreds  sat  with  smiling  faces 
while  they  listened,  and  all  seemed  to  take  pride  in  the  central  personage,  as  if  he  were 
a  son  just  graduating  from  college  in  that  lovely  grove.    The  scene  lingers  in  our  mem- 
ory as  one  of  the  most  unstudied,  sincere,  heartfelt  instances  of  personal  and  loving 
homage  ever  paid  to  an  honored  fellow-citizen  and  neighbor." — Dr.  Edwards  after 
Mr.  Coif  ax's  Death. 


2Q2  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

Mr.  Turpie  had  been  renominated  for  Congress  against 
him.  That  afternoon  he  opened  his  canvass  in  a  speech  of 
two  hours  to  five  thousand  people.  He  began  : 

"  If  there  is  any  voter  of  this  district  here  assembled  who  is  anxious 
that  his  Representative  should  favor  the  unconditional  admission  into  the 
counsels  of  the  nation  of  the  men  who  have  been  the  murderers  of  your 
brothers,  your  sons,  and  your  friends,  who  plunged  this  country  into  all 
the  anarchy,  the  bloodshed,  and  desolation  of  civil  war,  that  man  ought 
not  to  vote  for  me  for  Representative." 

Of  Congress,  he  said  : 

"  I  come  before  you  to-day  to  vindicate  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  from  the  aspersions  to  which  it  has  been  subjected  ;  and  in  taking 
up  this  subject,  I  will  say  that  I  have  been  there  as  your  Representative 
for  eleven  years,  and  in  all  that  time  have  never  sat  in  a  council  of  men 
so  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  patriotism,  so  unselfish  in  their  views,  so 
anxious  to  devise  the  best  measures  for  the  good  of  our  country,  as  that 
body  of  men  recently  adjourned.  It  is  the  ablest  Congress  I  have  ever 
seen  assembled  in  our  National  Capital.  It  has  been  taunted  by  its  ene- 
mies with  the  charge  of  excessive  deliberation.  It  was  deliberate  in  its 
action.  We,  they  say,  debated  for  months.  It  was  a  time  when  we 
should.  We  knew  that  we  were  laying  foundations  which  were  to  last 
for  ages — endeavoring  to  reconstruct  the  Union  on  a  basis  as  eternal  as 
the  stars  ;  and,  therefore,  we  made  haste  slowly.  It  is  a  Congress  mod- 
erate in  its  demands  ;  there  is  not  one  demand  in  the  constitutional 
amendment  which  we  submitted  for  ratification  that  should  not  be  ap- 
proved by  every  man  in  the  land.  It  is  a  Congress  firm  in  its  determina- 
tion as  the  eternal  granite.  Not  all  the  appeals  of  the  Chicago  Times, 
and  other  papers  in  sympathy  with  rebels,  to  drive  them  from  the  Capital 
with  the  bayonet  ;  not  all  the  vilification  poured  out  on  their  heads  by 
traitors  and  friends  of  traitors,  caused  them  to  flinch  for  a  moment ;  but 
they  stood  firmly  for  the  right." 

Of  the  policy  of  Congress  he  said  : 

"  We  come  now  with  the  same  old  flag,  the  same  principles,  the  same 
devotion  to  the  country,  that  we  exhibited  as  an  organization  in  the  dark 
hours  of  the  war.  Then  we  wrote  on  that  banner  as  our  watchword, 
'  Liberty  to  all  men,'  and  it  sounded  round  the  world.  God  blessed  that 
motto,  and  gave  us  victory  ;  and  now  we  have  written  another  motto 
under  the  former  one,  which  is  also  to  be  sanctioned  by  popular  approval ; 
it  is,  '  Justice  to  all  men.'  Then,  indeed,  shall  we  have  a  nation  of 
whose  character  and  purposes  we  may  be  justly  proud.  Administrations, 
Congresses,  and  Presidents  die,  but  the  deeds  of  the  Union  party  will  live 
in  history  forever,  brightening  under  the  eye  of  posterity  as  age  after  age 
rolls  away,  becoming  more  and  more  glorious  as  their  mighty  influence 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  293 

for  the  good   of  humanity  and  the  prosperity  of  our  country  is  learned 
and  appreciated  by  experience." 

He  gave  his  audience  a  detailed  account  of  the  principal 
measures  of  the  late  session — the  resolution  against  the 
payment  of  Southern  claims  arising  from  war  losses  ;  the 
aid  voted  to  complete  the  unfinished  improvements  of  lake 
and  river  harbors  ;  the  abolition  of  the  fisheries  bounties  ; 
the  increase  of  pensions  and  the  equalization  of  soldiers' 
bounties  ;  the  reduction  of  taxation  by  one  hundred  mill- 
ions a  year  ;  the  relief  of  Union  officers  and  soldiers  from 
harassing  suits  brought  against  them  in  the  South  ;  the 
restoration  to  Southern  Union  men  of  their  property  con- 
fiscated by  the  Confederacy  ;  the  resolutions  favoring  the 
Fenians  ;  the  modification  of  the  neutrality  laws  to  some- 
thing like  the  practice  of  Great  Britain  and  other  nations  ; 
the  Civil  Rights  and  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  bills  ;  and 
lastly,  the  (fourteenth)  constitutional  amendment,  which 
he  analyzed,  section  by  section,  and  defended  as  both  ab- 
solutely just  and  absolutely  necessary.  Such  was  the  bur- 
den of  his  argument  in  this  canvass. 

Into  his  district  money  and  orators  were  poured  by  the 
opposition  with  reckless  profusion.  As  Speaker,  and  as  a 
conspicuous  representative  of  the  Congressional  policy  of 
reconstruction,  bold,  earnest,  firm,  he  was  an  object  of 
special  hatred  to  Mr.  Johnson,  who  himself  spoke  on  the 
border  of  Colfax's  district  in  his  famous  journey  to  Chicago, 
"  swinging  round  the  circle  to  leave  the  Constitution  in  the 
hands  of  the  people."  But  it  availed  nothing.  Mr.  Col- 
fax  was  returned  by  a  majority  of  2148  in  a  total  poll  of 
40,000.  He  made  ninety-one  speeches  in  twenty-two  Con- 
gressional districts,  many  of  them  joint  discussions  with 
Turpie.1  The  elections  gave  the  Union  men  as  strong  a 

1.  His  mother  writes  her  daughter  Carrie  :  "This  is  a  great  campaign  in  this  district. 
Schuyler  speaks  to  vast  crowds.  Where  he  formerly  spoke  to  a  hundred  he  now  has  a 
thousand,  and  where  he  had  a  thousand  he  now  has  five  or  six  thousand — processions  two 
miles  long.  Andy  Johnson  is  disgracing  his  station  and  the  people  by  his  electioneering 
tour,  but  we  think  he  is  aiding  the  Eepublican  cause.  Poor  Grant  and  Farragut  must 
feel  disgraced  by  being  with  him,  although  they  get  all  the  cheers.  I  guess  Mr.  Andy 
wishes  he  had  left  them  at  home.  To-night  [September  10th]  the  party  are  at  Indianap- 
olis, and  the  Cops  had  delegates  appointed  from  each  of  the  districts  to  receive  him. 
General  Logan  spoke  to  a  crowd  of  fifteen  thousand  here  last  Saturday.  There  was  a  sol- 
diers1 picnic  in  the  Fair  Ground,  and  it  was  the  gathering  of  the  campaign,  so  far. 


2Q4  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

majority  in  the  Fortieth  Congress  as  they  had  in  the  Thirty- 
ninth.  Commenting  on  the  Speaker's  election  to  Congress 
for  the  seventh  time  by  so  large  a  majority,  the  Springfield 
(Mass.)  Republican  said  : 

"  Mr.  Colfax  could  doubtless  change  from  the  House  to  the  Senate,  as 
Mr.  Morrill  is  about  to  do  ;  for  the  Indiana  Legislature  just  chosen  has  a 
Senator  to  elect  in  place  of  Mr.  Lane,  who  chooses  to  retire  at  the  close 
of  his  present  term,  next  March  ;  and  the  State  has  no  man  more  fit  for 
the  position,  no  man  more  likely  to  be  proffered  it  by  the  Legislature, 
acting  in  obedience  to  the  voice  of  the  country  and  the  State,  than  the 
popular  Speaker  of  the  House.  But  having  accepted  a  new  term  in  the 
House  from  his  district,  and  sure  there  of  a  third  term  in  the  Speaker's 
Chair,  if  he  desires  it,  he  will  most  likely  be  averse  to  any  change.  The 
Senatorship  is  no  advance  from  the  Speakership  ;  that  is  the  third  office 
in  rank  in  our  political  organization  ;  the  former  is  only  of  longer  con- 
tinuance ;  and  that  is  nothing  to  a  man  of  the  popularity  and  efficiency 
in  public  life  of  Mr.  Colfax.  He  will  hardly  ever  go  out  of  high  office, 
except  of  his  own  free  choice.  The  Senate  will  always  be  open  to  him. 
The  Cabinet  will  naturally  claim  him  by  and  by.  And  he  would  add 
strength  and  faith  before  the  people  to  any  Presidential  ticket,  even  if  so 
popular  a  man  as  General  Grant  should  head  it." 

Messrs.  Dennison,  Speed,  and  Harlan  resigned  from  the 
Cabinet.  Hannibal  Hamlin  resigned  the  Boston  Collector- 
ship,  and  Mr.  Arnold,  of  Chicago,  the  post  of  Sixth  Audi- 
tor of  the  Treasury.  The  fusion  convention  of  ex-rebels, 
Copperheads,  and  Johnson  men  assembled  at  Philadel- 
phia, August  i4th  ;  but  it  utterly  failed  in  its  purpose,  and 
its  effect  was  more  than  neutralized  by  the  convention  of 
Southern  loyalists,  which,  warned  out  of  the  South  by  the 
New  Orleans  massacre,  met  likewise  in  Philadelphia  on 
the  3d  of  September.  After  Henry  J.  Raymond,  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  was  the  most  considerable  Republican  de- 
fection. The  eccentric  divine  achieved  a  sudden  and  wide 
notoriety  by  censuring  Congress.  Said  Mr.  Greeley's 
paper  :  "  In  the  conception  of  every  blackleg,  duellist, 
negro-killer,  and  rowdy,  from  St.  John  to  the  Rio  Grande, 
he  has  all  at  once  ceased  to  be  a  fanatic,  a  bigot,  a  dis- 
unionist,  and  become  an  enlightened  patriot  and  states- 

Schuyler  and  Turpie  have  only  spoken  once  together.  They  begin  their  joint  canvass  ou 
the  18th  at  Valparaiso,  and  will  speak  here  on  the  20th.  Turpie  is  more  abusive  than 
usual,  and  there  will  be  a  great  time  here." 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  295 

man.  But  there  is  sadness  in  many  hearts  where  the  elo- 
quent pastor  of  Plymouth  Church  has  been  loved  and  hon- 
ored— a  mournful  consciousness  that  they  have  trusted  too 
confidently  and  loved  unwisely.  '  Little  children,  keep 
your  hearts  from  idols/  "  ' 

The  people  did  not  follow  the  renegade  Republican 
leaders.  Audiences  everywhere  punctuated  their  halting 
speeches  with,  "  Three  cheers  for  Congress  !"  General 
John  A.  Logan,  of  Illinois,  addressed  a  great  gathering  of 
soldiers  at  South  Bend,  and  it  was  said  that  he  converted 
even  the  Copperheads  within  hearing  ;  that  they  could  not 
resist  his  battle  tones. 

Mr.  Colfax  attended  a  Chicago  Fenian  picnic  in  August, 
and  expressed  his  warm  sympathy  with  the  wrongs  of  Ire- 
land, maintaining  that  an  Irish  Legislature  for  Irish  affairs 
on  Dublin  Green  was  the  true  and  only  remedy.  General 
Banks  had  reported  a  bill  at  the  late  session,  which  became 
law,  reforming  the  neutrality  laws,  making  international 
obligations  reciprocal.  "  Neither  Colfax  nor  Banks,"  wrote 
an  observer,  "  should  ever  want  a  friend  while  an  Irishman 
lives.  Colfax  was  unflagging  in  his  efforts  for  the  bill. 
One  could  see  his  nervous  anxiety  during  the  discussion, 
and  when  the  vote  was  taken,  he  desired  his  name  to  be 
called,  so  as  to  record  his  vote  in  its  favor."  Mr.  Colfax 
had  presented  resolutions  in  the  House  favorable  to  the 
Fenians,  "  to  which,  undoubtedly,"  said  the  Fenian  Presi- 
dent Roberts,  "  General  O'Neill  and  his  comrades  were 
indebted  for  their  release  from  prosecution  in  the  United 
States  courts."  The  tenderness  of  the  Speaker  and  of 
Congress  for  the  Fenian  invaders  of  Canada  was  largely 
inspired  by  the  remembrance,  still  very  fresh,  of  the  peculiar 
neutrality  of  Great  Britain  during  the  war.  But  also  the 
leading  Fenians  had  resolved  to  place  their  organization  in 

1.  Mr.  Greeley's  paper  made  a  splendid  fight  against  the  Johnson  movement,  solitary 
and  alone  of  the  New  York  journals.  When  that  had  been  crushed,  he  was  the  choice 
of  his  party  for  the  Senatorship.  But  to  punish  him  for  opposing  Seward's  nomination 
at  Chicago,  in  1860,  and  to  satisfy  personal  spites  on  other  accounts,  the  managers  gave 
the  prize  to  Roscoe  Conkling.  Mr.  Conkling  had  also  rendered  signal  service  in  wresting 
the  great  State  from  Seward,  Raymond,  and  Johnson.  "  The  young  Senator  from  New 
York,"  said  George  William  Curtis,  "  takes  her  imperial  flag,  and  will  place  as  its  motto 
exhorts,  'Excelsior.11' 


296  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

the  United  States,  as  well  as  in  Ireland,  against  oppression  ; 
and  many  influential  Republican  leaders  hoped  to  draw  a 
strong  Irish  contingent  into  alliance  with  the  party  always 
and  everywhere  opposed  to  oppression.  By  the  way,  the 
French  had  been  warned  to  get  out  of  Mexico  on  the  first 
meeting  of  this  Congress  ;  they  had  heeded  the  warning  ; 
and  their  Mexican  Emperor,  Maximilian,  was  now  trying 
to  follow  them,  all  too  late.  Left  to  his  own  resources  by 
the  French,  he  was  worsted  by  the  Mexicans,  taken  pris- 
oner, and  executed. 

The  Speaker  left  home  for  Washington  early  in  Novem- 
ber, repeating  his  lecture  seventeen  times  on  the  way,  in 
partial  answer  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  invitations.  Occa- 
sionally the  newspapers  suggested  him  for  the  Presidency, 
saying  the  people  wanted  Grant,  but  that  it  would  be  un- 
safe to  take  him  from  the  head  of  the  army.  In  a  letter  of 
December  2oth  to  his  old  partner  Wheeler,  he  says  : 

"  You  speak  of  my  prospects  of  being  President  as  promising  ;  and 
yourself  rejoice  over  it,  as  I  am  glad  to  see.  I  hear  it  everywhere  that  I 
go,  and  it  is  current  talk  here  among  members.  But  you  know  how 
often  I  have  said  at  home  that  I  am  satisfied  with  my  present  position, 
and  I  have  indulged  in  no  ambition  for  higher  honors.  I  say  so  to  all 
who  talk  with  me  about  it  ;  but  a  good  many  smile  and  turn  incredulously 
away.  Yet  it  is  really  so.  If  it  is  to  be,  it  will  be,  but  it  will  have  to  come, 
if  it  does,  without  my  electioneering  for  it,  or  running  after  it.  When  I 
think  of  its  grave  responsibilities  and  cares,  and  contrast  it  with  my  pres- 
ent pleasant  position,  I  am  not  attracted  toward  it  ;  and  yet  these  expres- 
sions of  confidence  and  regard  are  very  flattering  indeed.  To  think  of  the 
steps  from  the  printing-office,  where  we  have  worked  together  so  harmo- 
niously, and  all  coming  without  forcing  or  urging,  or,  indeed,  any  contest 
at  all  except  with  the  enemy,  is  almost  marvellous.  I  send  you  from 
clippings  on  my  table  articles  on  the  subject  from  two  leading  papers  in 
New  York,  and  could  send  you  a  dozen  more  from  Pennsylvania  and 
New  England,  besides  many  I  never  saved.  I  intend  to  let  it  drift,  with- 
out lifting  a  finger  to  control  the  current,  quite  content  if  this  great  honor 
falls  on  other  shoulders." 

Of  a  balance  still  due  him  from  Mr.  Wheeler  on  the 
purchase  of  the  Register,  he  writes  : 

"  I  would  not  like  to  trade  at  all  for  that  mortgage  note  on  Sherwood. 
You  know  how  poor  a  collector  I  am,  and  if  anything  happened  to  him 
I  could  never  foreclose  on  a  friend,  and  one  blind  at  that.  But  you  can 
let  what  you  owe  me  stand  a  whole  year  if  it  would  embarrass  you  at  all 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  297 

to  pay  earlier.     Put  it,  if  you  have  no  objection,  in  a  note  payable  in  one 
year  without  interest,  and  then  pay  when  convenient." 

Again,  shortly  afterward,  to  same  : 

"  I  am  not  flush,  financially,  as  you  might  imagine  from  my  offer  to 
pay  balance,  if  that  mortgage  note  was  on  the  office.  I  pay  six  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  a  month  for  house  and  board  for  self  and  family,  which 
is  more  than  my  salary,  arid  I  have  expenses  of  hundreds  of  dollars  per 
month  besides.  But  I  expected  to  sell  some  small  investments  I  had  to 
pay  current  expenses,  and  would  have  paid  out  of  that,  as  all  my  salary 
during  the  recess  was,  of  course,  invested  ere  this,  and  which  is  all  I  can 
save." 

The  returning  Congressmen  were  welcomed  to  the  Cap- 
ital in  December  by  the  citizens  in  mass,  Judge  Carter 
delivering  the  address.  In  response,  the  Speaker  reviewed 
the  rapid  movement  of  affairs  during  the  vacation,  dwell- 
ing on  the  rising  stubbornness  with  which  the  verdict  of 
the  people  in  the  fall  elections  had  been  met  by  the  South. 
He  said  in  part  : 

"  Yet,  while  we  cannot  compel  them  to  approve  the  constitutional 
amendment,  our  duty  to  the  nation,  to  justice,  to  liberty,  and  to  human- 
ity is  none  the  less.  And  exponents  of  the  people's  will,  as  we  are,  we 
cannot  avoid  the  duty.  Indeed,  we  may  see  in  it  the  finger  of  Provi- 
dence. Like  our  fathers,  we  have  in  the  past  few  years  builded  better 
than  we  knew.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  war  how  willingly  would  an 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  people  have  consented  to  perpetuate  slavery 
in  the  Republic,  if  Southern  traitors  had  taken  from  our  lips  the  bloody 
chalice  of  civil  war,  which  they  compelled  us  to  drain  to  its  very  dregs  ! 
But  God  willed  otherwise  ;  and,  at  last,  when  every  family  altar  had 
been  crimsoned  with  blood,  and  every  cemetery  and  churchyard  crowded 
with  patriot  graves,  the  nation  rose  to  a  higher  plane  of  duty,  and  re- 
solved in  these  halls  that  slavery  should  die.  Then  the  storm-cloud  of 
war  passed  away  ;  God's  smile  shone  on  our  banners  ;  victory  after  vic- 
tory blessed  our  gallant  armies  ;  and  the  crowning  triumph  was  won  that 
gave  salvation  to  the  Union  and  freedom  to  the  slave. 

"  Since  then  we  have  been  earnestly  struggling  for  reconstruction  on 
some  enduring  and  loyal  foundation.  Stumbling-blocks  have  impeded 
our  progress  ;  and  when  at  last  a  mild  and  magnanimous  proposition  is 
made,  embodying  no  confiscation,  no  banishment,  no  penalties  of  the 
offended  law,  we  are  baffled  by  a  hardening  of  heart  against  it  as  inex- 
plicable as  it  seems  irremovable.  Does  it  not  seem  as  if  again  the  Creator 
is  leading  us  in  His  way  rather  than  our  own  ?  And  as  we  turn  for  light, 
does  it  not  flash  upon  us  that  He  again  requires  the  nation  to  conquer 
its  prejudices  ;  that  inasmuch  as  He  has  put  all  human  beings  on  an 


298  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

equality  before  the  divine  law,  and  called  them  all  His  children,  He  de- 
mands that  we  shall  put  all  on  an  equality  before  our  human  law,  so  that 
every  one  in  the  region  poisoned  by  the  influences  of  slavery  and  the 
principles  of  treason  shall  be  clothed  with  all  rights  necessary  for  full  and 
safe  self-protection  against  tyranny,  outrage,  and  wrong— not  left  de- 
fenceless to  the  mercy  of  those  who  so  long  exhibited  no  mercy  to  the 
Government  they  sought  to  destroy  ?" 

Without  anticipating  the  means  by  which  this  was  to  be 
done,  the  Speaker  claimed  for  Congress,  under  the  plain 
language  of  the  Constitution,  the  power  to  do  whatever 
might  be  necessary. 

Upon  reassembling,  Congress  hastened  to  repeal  the 
section  of  the  Confiscation  Act  which  authorized  the  Presi- 
dent to  grant  pardon  and  amnesty  to  ex-rebels  by  proc- 
lamation. It  enfranchised  the  blacks  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  and  in  the  Territories,  and  admitted  Nebraska 
into  the  Union.  It  declared  by  concurrent  resolution  that 
no  rebel  State  should  be  reinstated  until  it  should  have 
ratified  the  Fourteenth  Amendment.  It  prescribed  the 
duties  of  the  Clerk  in  preparing  for  the  organization  of  the 
next  House,  and  provided  that  the  Fortieth  Congress 
should  convene  immediately  on  the  dissolution  of  the 
Thirty-ninth  Congress.  It  restricted  the  President's  field 
for  mischief,  so  far  as  was  practicable,  by  the  Tenure-of- 
Office  Act.  The  impeachment  of  the  President  was  con- 
sidered, but  from  lack  of  time  the  subject  was  necessarily 
left  to  the  incoming  Congress. 

All  this  was  negative,  defensive  merely.  Congress  had 
declared  amply  enough  how  the  rebel  States  should  not  be 
reinstated.  Two  years  after  the  close  of  the  war,  however, 
the  Union  was  still  unrestored,  and  while  claiming,  under 
the  Constitution,  absolute  jurisdiction  of  the  question,  Con- 
gress had  failed  to  prescribe  the  terms  on  which  the  Union 
should  be  restored.  The  peace  was  become  a  truce.  The 
war  bade  fair  to  break  out  again,  with  the  President  at  the 
head  of  the  ex-Confederate  forces,  and  with  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Union  as  their  avowed  object.  Since  the  day 
it  convened,  Congress  had  been  occupied  with  the  problem 
of  reconstruction  and  restoration  on  just  and  safe  prin- 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  299 

ciples.  But  many  things  had  compelled  it  to  make  haste 
slowly.  With  substantial  unanimity  within  itself  as  to  the 
end  to  be  sought,  there  was  extraordinary  diversity  of 
opinion  as  to  the  best  means  of  reaching  it.1  Inconse- 
quence of  the  defection  of  the  President,  every  measure 
had  to  be  adopted  by  a  two-thirds  vote.  There  was  a  nat- 
ural indisposition  to  adopt  radical  measures  if  it  could  be 
avoided,  and  it  was  long  hoped,  if  not  believed,  that  the 
indirect  action  of  Congress  would  prove  sufficient.  But 
both  the  country  and  Congress  were  at  last  convinced  by 
the  course  of  events  that  affirmative  Congressional  action 
was  indispensable,  involving  the  sweeping  away  of  Mr. 
Johnson's  ex-rebel  State  governments  and  the  enfran- 
chisement of  the  emancipated  slaves.  Mr.  Stevens  had 
been  of  that  opinion  ever  since  the  emasculation  by  the 
Senate  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  as  adopted  by  the 
House,  and  immediately  thereupon  proposed  a  measure 
containing  the  germ  of  the  Military  Reconstruction  Act. 
Called  up  from  time  to  time,  and  pressed  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  the  House  by  Mr.  Stevens,  it  was  passed  on  the 
1 3th  day  of  February,  1867,  after  a  four  weeks'  debate  upon 
it  in  Committee  of  the  Whole.  By  the  2oth  both  Houses 
had  agreed  upon  it,  and  passed  it.  On  the  26.  day  of 
March  the  President  returned  it  to  the  House  with  his 
veto,  over  which  it  was  at  once  passed  by  both  Houses  ; 
and  with  only  two  days  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  to 
spare,  it  became  law. 

Noon  of  the  4th  of  March  being  near,  a  resolution  was 
offered  thanking  the  Speaker  "  for  the  courteous,  digni- 
fied, able,  and  impartial  manner  in  which  he  has  discharged 
the  duties  of  presiding  officer."  Mr.  Le  Blond,  a  Demo- 
crat, said  he  hoped  it  would  be  unanimously  adopted,  as, 
on  motion  of  Mr.  Maynard,  it  was,  by  a  rising  vote.  Mr. 
Hogan  and  Mr.  Winfield,  both  Democrats,  seconded  the 

1.  "If  I  might  presume  upon  my  age, "said  Thaddeus  Stevens  in  one  of  these  debates, 
"  I  would  suggest  to  the  young  gentlemen  around  me  that  the  deeds  of  this  burning  cri- 
sis, of  this  solemn  day,  of  this  thrilling  moment,  will  cast  their  shadows  far  into  the 
future,  and  will  make  their  impress  upon  the  annals  of  our  history,  and  that  we  shall  ap- 
pear upon  the  bright  pages  of  that  history  just  in  so  far  as  we  cordially,  without  guile, 
without  bickering,  without  small  criticisms,  lend  our  aid  to  promote  the  great  cause  of 
humanity  and  universal  liberty.1' 


300  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

motion  for  its  adoption.  Mr.  Winfield  said  he  desired  the 
country  to  take  it  as  something  more  than  routine.  Con- 
stituencies and  Representatives  alike,  he  continued,  had 
been  roused  to  the  highest  pitch  of  mental  excitement  by 
the  conspiracy,  the  war,  the  mode  and  purposes  of  it,  and 
what  was  next  best  to  be  done  ;  and  the  duties  of  presid- 
ing officer  were  unusually  difficult  and  delicate.  The 
Speaker  had  discharged  them  in  such  manner  as  to  merit 
the  warmest  expressions  of  consideration  and  gratitude. 
He  felt  that  he  represented  the  feeling  of  all  retiring  mem- 
bers in  saying  that  the  urbanity  and  gentleness  of  his  man- 
ners, his  kindness  of  heart,  and  his  justness  and  fairness  as 
a  presiding  officer  had  so  far  secured  him  their  affection, 
friendship,  and  confidence,  that  they  would  follow  his 
career  through  life  with  no  common  interest,  and  with 
their  best  wishes  for  his  happiness,  prosperity,  and  suc- 
cess. 

The  Speaker's  valedictory  was  felicitous.  He  was  beg- 
gared for  words  to  fitly  express  his  thanks  for  so  unusual 
and  significant  an  indorsement.  He  had  tried  to  reach 
the  high  standard  of  his  predecessors  in  the  performance 
of  his  duties,  and  was  grateful  for  the  uniform  support  he 
had  received.  Death  had  thinned  their  ranks  less  than 
ordinarily.  They  must  separate,  and  they  would  never  all 
meet  again.  "  But  as  in  a  distant  landscape  the  eye  rests 
with  delight  on  its  beauties,  while  its  defects  are  thrown 
into  unnoticed  shade,  may  memory,  as  in  after  years  we  re- 
view our  association  here,  bring  before  us  all  the  pleasures 
of  this  companionship  in  the  national  service,  forgetful  of 
the  asperities,  which  should  perish  with  the  occasion  that 
evoked  them." 

In  his  history  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress,  Mr.  Barnes 
says  :  "  No  one  towered  so  conspicuously  above  the  rest  as 
to  be  universally  recognized  and  followed  as  the  '  leader,'  " 
although  Thaddeus  Stevens,  from  his  age,  services,  ability, 
position,  and  force  of  character,  was  very  prominent  and 
influential.  That  under  such  circumstances  so  great  re- 
sults were  harmoniously  wrought  out,  he  ascribes  in  part 
"  to  the  patriotic  spirit  which  pervaded  the  minds  of  its 


THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS.  301 

members,"  but  in  part  also  "  to  the  parliamentary  ability 
and  tact  of  him  who  sat  faithfully  and  patiently  as  Speaker 
of  the  House.  Deprived  by  his  position  of  opportunity  of 
taking  part  in  the  discussions,  which  his  genius  and  ex- 
perience fitted  him  to  illustrate,  he  nevertheless  did  much 
to  direct  the  current  of  legislation  which  flowed  smoothly 
or  turbulently  before  him.  The  resolution  of  thanks  to 
the  Speaker,  moved  by  a  member  of  the  minority,  and 
passed  unanimously,  was  no  unmeaning  compliment,  but 
an  honor  fairly  earned  and  justly  paid." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Boynton,  Chaplain  of  the  House,  writing 
for  the  Cincinnati  Gazette,  said  of  these  Congresses  and  of 
the  Speaker  : 

"  History  will  yet  record  that  in  every  element  of  real  statesmanship  ; 
in  clear,  broad  views  of  human  rights  and  relations  ;  in  deep,  true  moral 
convictions  ;  in  all  that  constitutes  the  heroic  character,  the  leaders  of  the 
Thirty-ninth  Congress  were  superior  to  their  predecessors  ;  and  among 
them  Mr.  Colfax  was,  and  is,  an  acknowledged  leader. 

"  They  were  men  who  met  firmly  the  shock  of  the  most  formidable 
rebellion  of  modern  times,  and  crushed  it  ;  and  then,  against  the  whole 
power  of  the  Executive,  a  great  party  at  the  North  and  the  reinspirited 
rebels  conceived  and  executed  a  safe  plan  for  restoring  the  South  and  re- 
uniting the  country.  Men  capable  of  this  are  great  men.  For  three  con- 
secutive Congresses  [written  after  he  was  elected  Speaker  the  third  time], 
and  while  the  greatest  questions  ever  presented  to  American  statesmen 
were  being  discussed,  in  a  time  of  extreme  peril,  these  strong  men  invited 
Mr.  Colfax  to  preside  over  them,  guide  their  deliberations,  and  wield  the 
great  power  of  the  Speaker,  when  any  grave  mistake  would  have  im- 
perilled their  party  and  their  country. 

"  Many  of  the  strong  men  in  the  House  could  do,  perhaps,  each  in  his 
own  sphere,  what  the  Speaker  could  not  ;  but  in  the  administrative  ability 
needed  in  his  high  position  ;  in  the  power  to  so  guide  the  great  mental 
forces  of  the  House  as  to  reach  a  result  ;  in  the  faculty  of  seeing  at  a 
glance  the  true  aspect  of  a  difficult  case,  and  of  prompt  decision  ;  in  that 
'  tact '  which  means  an  intuitive  perception  of  what  is  needed,  and  how 
it  can  be  done,  Mr.  Colfax  has  no  superior  among  our  public  men  in  the 
House  or  elsewhere. 

"  His  convictions  rest  on  a  firm  moral  and  religious  basis,  and  there- 
fore he  is  not  likely  to  change.  He  is  one  of  the  best  living  representa- 
tives of  the  true  American  type  of  mind,  thoroughly  practical,  working 
right  on  to  definite  ends  with  great  executive  force,  power  of  endurance, 
and  an  unwearied  attention  to  the  details  of  business.  In  any  higher 
position  he  would  bring  to  the  conduct  of  affairs  the  same  clear  concep- 


302  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

tions,  the  same  power  of  prompt  decision,  the  same  exquisite  tact  and 
firmness  that  distinguish  him  as  Speaker." 

A  writer  in  Putnam's  Magazine  for  June,  1868,  said  of  the 
Speaker  : 

"  As  a  presiding  officer,  he  is  the  most  popular  the  House  has  had 
since  Henry  Clay.  His  marvellous  quickness  of  thought  and  his  talent 
for  the  rapid  administration  of  details  enable  him  to  hold  the  reins  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  even  in  its  most  boisterous  moods,  with  as 
much  grace  and  ease  as  Mr.  Bonner  would  show  the  paces  of  Dexter  in 
Central  Park  or  as  Mr.  Gottschalk  would  thread  the  keys  of  a  piano,  in 
a  dreamy  maze  of  faultless,  quivering  melody. 

"  As  an  orator,  Mr.  Colfax  is  not  argumentative,  except  as  clear  state- 
ment and  sound  judgment  are  convincing.  He  is  eminently  representa- 
tive. A  glance  at  his  broad,  well-balanced,  practical  brain  indicates  that 
his  leading  faculty  is  the  sum  of  all  faculties— judgment  ;  and  that  what 
he  believes  the  majority  of  the  people  either  believe  or  can  be  made  to 
believe.  His  talents  are  administrative  and  executive  rather  than  deliber- 
ative. He  knows  men  well,  estimates  them  correctly,  treats  them  all 
candidly  and  fairly.  No  man  will  get  through  his  business  with  you  in 
fewer  minutes,  and  yet  none  is  more  free  from  the  horrid  brusqueness  of 
busy  men.  There  are  heart  and  kindness  in  Mr.  Colfax's  politeness. 
Men  leave  his  presence  with  the  impression  that  he  is  at  once  an  able, 
honest,  and  kind  man.  The  breath  of  slander  has  been  silent  toward 
his  fair,  spotless  fame." 

In  a  speech  at  Bedford,  Pa.,  September  4th,  1866, 
Thaddeus  Stevens  said  :  "  As  a  further  enumeration  of 
some  of  the  acts  of  Congress,  I  refer  you  to  a  speech  of  the 
Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax,  lately  made  to  his  constituents.  No 
sounder  patriot  exists.  And  I  will  take  this  occasion  to 
say  that  as  Speaker  I  believe  no  abler  officer  ever  presided 
over  a  deliberative  body." 


CHAPTER  X. 

FORTIETH    CONGRESS. 
1867-1869. 

RE-ELECTED  SPEAKER,  INAUGURAL. — CONGRESS  ADJOURNS  TO  JULY. — 
LECTURING,  HONORS,  RECEPTIONS. — CONGRESS  CONSTRUES  THE  RE- 
CONSTRUCTION ACTS,  ADJOURNS  TO  NOVEMBER. — SERENADE  SPEECH. 
— THE  SPEAKER  PROPOSED  IN  MANY  QUARTERS  FOR  PRESIDENT. — 
THE  FALL  CANVASS  AND  ELECTION. — JOHNSON'S  MACHINATIONS  TO 
DEFEAT  CONGRESSIONAL  RECONSTRUCTION. — THE  PRESIDENT  IM- 
PEACHED, TRIED,  ACQUITTED. — THE  REBEL  STATES  ACQUIESCE  IN 
THE  LAW. — COLFAX  SOLICITED  TO  STAND  FOR  GOVERNOR  OF  INDI- 
ANA, DECLINES. — PROPOSED  FOR  VICE-PRESIDENT. — NOMINATED  WITH 
GRANT,  CONGRATULATIONS,  COMMENTS. — RECEPTION  AT  HOME. — A 
SUMMER  IDYL. — ELECTED  VICE-PRESIDENT. — MARRIES  Miss  WADE, 
NIECE  OF  SENATOR  WADE,  OF  OHIO. — CONGRATULATIONS,  RECEP- 
TIONS, BANQUETS,  PRESENTS. — COUNTING  THE  ELECTORAL  VOTE. — 
TAKES  FINAL  LEAVE  OF  THE  HOUSE. 

IMMEDIATELY  on  the  dissolution  of  the  Thirty-ninth,  the 
Clerk  called  the  roll  of  the  Fortieth  Congress.  There  had 
been  no  caucus  ;  Colfax  was  nominated  for  Speaker  "  amid 
as  enthusiastic  and  universal  a  clapping  of  hands,"  said  a 
press  dispatch,  "  as  was  ever  accorded  a  public  favorite. 
Republicans  did  not  cheer  more  than  Democrats,  men 
more  than  women,  the  galleries  more  than  the  House.  It 
was  a  spontaneous  recognition  of  a  rare  personality  and  a 
true  manhood."  On  the  ballot  he  received  127  votes  to 
30  for  Mr.  Marshall,  of  Illinois.  Upon  taking  the  Chair  he 
spoke  as  follows  : 

"  GENTLEMEN  :  Elected  for  the  third  time  to  this  responsible  and  try- 
ing position,  I  appreciate  more  than  ever  before  the  importance  of  this 
trust,  and  realize  more  than  when  first  entering  upon  its  difficult  duties 
the  absolute  necessity  of  your  confidence  and  support.  Nor  do  I  over- 
rate the  gravity  of  our  position  as  American  legislators. 

"  '  The  years  have  never  dropped  their  sand 
On  mortal  issue  vast  and  grand 
As  ours  to-day.' 


3O4  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

"  A  nation  decimated  by  the  conflicts  of  fraternal  strife,  a  land  deso- 
lated by  the  destructive  marches  of  hostile  armies,  a  people  with  the  fruits 
of  prolonged  war,  ripened  into  the  gloomy  harvest  of  hearts  dead  with 
the  bullet,  as  well  as  hearts  heavy  with  bereavement  and  broken  with 
anguish,  look  anxiously,  from  North  and  South  alike,  to  this  Capital  of 
our  continental  domain. 

"  But  there  is  a  pathway  of  duty  luminous  with  light,  and  by  that  light 
we  should  walk.  It  is  to  guide  our  steps  by  the  justice  of  God  and  the 
rights  of  man.  It  is  to  anchor  our  legislation  on  what  the  great  Com- 
moner of  England,  John  Bright,  declares  to  be  the  simple  but  sublime  prin- 
ciples on  which  national  questions  should  be  settled — the  basis  of  eternal 
right.  It  is  to  write  on  our  banner  those  words  that  will  shine  brighter 
than  the  stars  that  gem  the  firmament — '  liberty,  loyalty,  and  law.'  It  is 
to  so  make  history  that  posterity  will  rise  up  and  call  us  blessed. 

"  The  Congress  which  has  just  passed  away  has  written  a  record  that 
will  be  long  remembered  by  the  poor  and  friendless,  whom  it  did  not 
forget.  Misrepresented  or  misunderstood  by  those  who  denounced  it  as 
enemies,  harshly  and  unjustly  criticised  by  some  who  should  have  been 
its  friends,  it  proved  itself  more  faithful  to  human  progress  and  liberty 
than  any  of  its  predecessors.  The  outraged  and  the  oppressed  found  in 
these  Congressional  halls  champions  and  friends.  Its  key-note  of  policy 
was  protection  to  the  down-trodden.  It  quailed  not  before  the  mightiest 
and  neglected  not  the  obscurest.  It  lifted  the  slave  whom  the  nation  had 
freed  up  to  the  full  stature  of  manhood.  It  placed  on  our  statute-book 
the  Civil  Rights  Act  as  our  national  Magna  Charta,  grander  than  all  the 
enactments  of  the  American  code.  And  in  all  the  region  whose  civil 
governments  had  been  destroyed  by  a  vanquished  rebellion,  it  declared, 
as  a  guarantee  of  defence  to  the  weakest,  that  the  free  man's  hand  should 
wield  the  free  man's  ballot,  and  none  but  loyal  men  should  govern  a  land 
which  loyal  sacrifices  had  saved.  Taught,  too,  by  inspiration  that  new 
wine  could  not  be  safely  put  in  old  bottles,  it  proclaimed  that  there  could 
be  no  safe  or  loyal  reconstruction  on  a  foundation  of  unrepentant  treason 
or  disloyalty. 

"  Fortunate  will  it  be  for  us  if,  when  we  surrender  these  seats  to  our 
successors,  we  can  point  to  a  record  which  will  shine  on  the  historic  page 
like  that  of  the  Congress  which  has  just  expired.  Thrice  fortunate  if, 
when  we  leave  this  Capitol,  our  whole  national  structure  shall  be  per- 
manently restored,  resting  on  the  sure  foundation-stones  of  loyalty, 
unity,  liberty,  and  right. 

"  With  such  convictions  of  duty  I  come  to  this  Chair  to  administer 
your  rules,  but  not  as  a  partisan.  I  appeal  to  you  for  that  generous  sup- 
port by  which  alone  a  presiding  officer  can  be  sustained,  pledging  you  in 
return  an  inflexible  impartiality,  which  shall  be  proved  by  my  deeds. 
And  invoking  on  your  deliberations  the  favor  of  Him  who  holds  the 
destinies  of  nations  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand,  I  am  now  ready  to  take 
the  oath  of  office  prescribed  by  law." 


FORTIETH    CONGRESS.  305 

Congress  proceeded  to  perfect  a  supplementary  recon- 
struction act.  The  act  of  the  last  Congress  declared  uni- 
versal suffrage  the  principle  upon  which  reorganization 
should  proceed  ;  this  act  provided  the  machinery  in  detail 
for  reorganizing  upon  that  principle.  Both  acts  recognized 
President  Johnson's  State  governments  "  for  municipal 
purposes  only."  The  President  appointed  Generals 
Thomas,  Ord,  Sheridan,  Sickles,  and  Schofield  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  five  military  districts  into  which  the  South 
was  divided.  About  the  end  of  March  Congress  adjourned 
to  the  first  Wednesday  in  July.  Maryland  was  soon  after- 
ward recovered  by  the  Southern  party  through  a  constitu- 
tional convention.  Jefferson  Davis  was  released  on  bail, 
Mr.  Greeley  becoming  one  of  his  sureties,  and  thereby  in- 
curring a  good  deal  of  odium  among  his  old  admirers. 
Mr.  Johnson  "  swung  round  the  Southern  arc  of  the 
circle,"  and  left  the  Constitution  in  the  hands  of  the 
Southern  as  well  as  the  Northern  people.  His  Attorney- 
General,  Mr.  Stanberry,  was  delivered  of  an  opinion  on 
the  reconstruction  acts  which  led  Congress  to  declare,  in 
its  July  session,  "  that  the  existing  provisional  State  gov- 
ernments are  not  legal  governments,"  and  to  put  its  own 
and  a  finally  unmistakable  construction  on  the  reconstruc- 
tion legislation.  It  appointed  a  committee  to  investigate 
the  Lincoln  assassination  conspiracy  and  a  committee  to 
inquire  into  the  cruelties  to  Union  prisoners  during  the 
war,  and  on  the  2oth  of  July  adjourned  to  the  2ist  of 
November. 

With  Stevens,  Wade,  Sumner,  and  others,  the  Speaker 
was  serenaded  on  this  adjournment.  In  response,  Mr. 
Colfax  said  they  had  been  forced  to  hold  this  session 
against  their  will.  Mr.  Johnson  had  vetoed  the  recon- 
struction bills  because  they  made  the  generals  supreme. 
Said  the  Speaker  : 

"  We  passed  them  over  the  vetoes,  meaning  to  make  the  generals 
supreme.  But  when  it  became  apparent  that  they  would  be  accepted  by 
those  States,  the  President  vetoed  his  own  vetoes,  promulgating,  through 
his  Attorney-General,  that  the  laws  made  the  generals  subordinate  to  the 
provisional  governments.  We  have  returned  and  declared  our  meaning 


306  SCHUYLER  (fOLFAX. 

again,  and  so  that  it  cannot  be  misunderstood.  Some  think  we  have 
done  too  much  ;  some,  too  little  ;  I  think  we  have  struck  the  golden 
mean — firm,  yet  prudent  ;  courageous,  without  undue  excitement  ;  inflexi- 
ble, and  yet  wise." 

The  charge  of  military  despotism  did  not  alarm  him. 
They  were  insisting  on  the  policy  first  announced  by  the 
President  himself.  The  Speaker  predicted  a  more  over- 
whelming victory  than  ever  in  1868,  both  in  the  North  and 
the  South  ;  for  "  the  South  will  acquiesce  and  return," 
said  he  ;  "  each  and  every  man  with  the  ballot  guarantee- 
ing his  personal  liberty  in  his  own  right  hand." 

In  the  earlier  recess  of  Congress  the  Speaker  repeated 
his  "Across  the  Continent"  lecture,  "with  the  view," 
said  the  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser,  "  of  obtaining 
the  Presidential  nomination,  in  case  it  should  not  be  found 
necessary  to  nominate  General  Grant,  who  will  be  selected 
only  as  a  last  resort."  "The  popular  Speaker  is  lectur- 
ing," replied  the  Toledo  Blade,  "  for  the  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  a  night  he  receives,  without  which  he  could 
not  afford  to  ornament  the  Speaker's  Chair.  To  get  the 
Presidential  nomination,  he  has  only  to  authorize  his 
friends  to  say  that  he  will  accept  it."  He  was  received 
with  distinction  wherever  he  appeared  ;  the  best  people 
lavished  attentions  on  him,  and  flocked  to  hear  him  lecture. 
Ordinarily,  he  lectured  for  pay,  but  he  declined  pay  from 
relief  or  charitable  societies,  especially  if  they  were  con- 
nected in  any  way  with  the  soldiers.1 

At  a  reception  tendered  him  by  the  Union  League  Club 
of  New  York,  President  John  Jay  said  :  ' '  A  volume  of  biog- 
raphy would  fail  to  convey  an  idea  of  Mr.  Colfax's  charac- 
ter so  vivid  as  that  suggested  by  the  fact  that  he  was 
chosen  Speaker  successively  of  the  Thirty-eighth,  Thirty- 
ninth,  and  Fortieth  Congresses.  To  them  history  will  ac- 
cord a  glory  akin  to  that  which  hallows  the  memory  of  the 

1.  "  Mr.  Colfax  answered  our  call  for  lecturers,  agreeing  to  come  on  the  adjournment 
of  Congress  and  deliver  eight  lectures,  entirely  at  his  own  expense.  Before  Congress 
adjourned  the  State  took  the  Home  under  its  care,  and  then  Mr.  Colfax  turned  this 
benefaction  on  the  G.  A.  R.  He  showed  me  his  memorandum-book,  containing  several 
pages  of  cities  where  he  had  these  engagements,  and  he  filled  them."— Mr.  J.  H.  Lozier, 
Agent  Indiana  Soldiers'  Home. 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  307 

Continental  Congress  of  the  Revolution."  Eloquently 
commending  the  great  labors  of  these  Congresses,  "  under 
which,  we  trust,  the  Speaker  may  presently  call  the  Repre- 
sentatives of  every  State  of  a  reunited  Republic,"  Mr.  Jay 
offered  '*  to  our  illustrious  guest,  personally  and  officially, 
our  heartfelt  congratulations  and  most  cordial  welcome." 

Answering  Mr.  Jay,  the  Speaker  rapidly  reviewed  the 
history  made  in  the  last  six  years — the  suppression  of  the 
Rebellion,  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  reconstruction  of 
the  Union  on  the  basis  of  justice — and  complimented  his 
hosts  on  the  service  their  powerful  organization  had  ren- 
dered at  every  stage  of  the  momentous  contest.  He  eulo- 
gized the  Thirty-ninth  Congress,  and  spoke  hopefully  of 
the  growing  signs  of  acquiescence  in  its  terms  of  restora- 
tion. Referring  to  the  Union  men  of  the  South,  he  said  : 

"  When  the  waves  of  treason  swept  over  all  that  region,  a  faithful  few 
refused  to  yield  to  secession.  Branded  as  traitors  to  the  Confederacy, 
because  they  would  not  surrender  their  birthright,  they  never  swerved 
from  their  allegiance.  Punished  by  confiscation  and  robbery,  and  threat- 
ened with  outrage  and  death,  they  never  faltered  ;  and  when  they  could 
no  longer  live  peaceably  at  their  homes,  they  fled  to  the  mountains,  the 
caves,  and  swamps,  and  said  :  '  Welcome  confiscation,  robbery,  exile,  or 
death  ;  we  stand  by  the  Stars  and  Stripes  to  the  last  drop  of  our  blood 
and  the  last  beat  of  our  hearts.'  God  bless  those  faithful  Union  men  ! 
They  are  to  lead  back  these  States,  clad  in  new  robes  of  liberty  and 
justice." 

At  Lansing,  Mich.,  a  month  later,  a  constitutional 
convention  being  in  session,  he  was  invited  to  a  seat  on 
the  floor,  and  introduced  by  the  President  of  the  conven- 
tion as  "  one  who  by  his  talents  and  acquirements,  his 
exalted  patriotism,  his  devotion  to  the  public  interests,  and 
his  sympathy  with  humanity,  has  won  for  himself  a  proud 
place  in  the  affections  of  this  nation,  and  now  justly  ranks 
as  one  of  the  foremost  of  American  statesmen. "  In  reply, 
the  Speaker  disclaimed  such  high  praise,  complimented 
the  convention,  ventured  some  suggestions  as  to  the  im- 
portance of  its  mission,  and  assured  them  that  he  felt  a 
neighborly  interest  in  their  State,  since  he  lived  just  over 
their  border  in  Indiana,  and  had  for  thirty  years. 

He  sought  rest  and  recreation  during  the  summer,  visit 


308  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

ing  the  coast  of  Maine,  the  Mammoth  Cave,  in  Kentucky, 
and  the  Lake  Superior  region.  "  Staying  in  one  place," 
he  said,  "  tends  to  low  spirits." 

In  August  Secretary  Stanton  having  declined  to  resign 
at  the  President's  request,  the  President  suspended  him 
from  office,  appointed  General  Grant  Secretary  of  War,  ad 
interim,  and  endeavored  to  use  the  general  to  thwart  the 
execution  of  the  reconstruction  acts,  apparently  lacking 
the  nerve  to  do  it  himself,  and  being  desirous  of  embroil- 
ing Grant  with  the  friends  of  Congress.  Sheridan  and 
other  generals  commanding  in  the  South  were  thus  super- 
seded, an  amnesty  proclamation  was  issued  to  strengthen 
the  ex-rebel  party,  and  by  the  use  of  the  Presidential  influ- 
ence in  numberless  ways,  reconstruction  in  accordance 
with  law  was  practically  brought  to  a  stand-still  ;  so  that, 
at  the  election  on  the  constitution  in  Alabama  in  February 
following,  the  ex-rebels  neither  voted  nor  permitted  the 
Union  men  to  vote,  and  the  constitution  was  rejected. 

Mr.  Colfax  engaged  in  the  fall  canvass  with  his  full 
energies,  speaking  to  great  crowds  in  many  States.  Col- 
onel Forney  writes  him  :  "  I  cannot  too  heartily  express 
my  admiration  at  the  tone  of  your  speeches  and  the  bold- 
ness of  your  opinions.  Congress  will  meet  surrounded  by 
the  great  expectations  of  the  people  for  bold  action."  At 
Wooster,  O.,  the  Speaker  was  reported  as  saying  that  he 
counted  the  days  till  Congress  should  meet,  because  Stan- 
ton  would  then  go  back  to  the  War  Department,  and  the 
President  would  be  required  by  the  House  to  defend  him- 
self from  charges  of  "  persistent  usurpations  and  viola- 
tions of  his  oath  to  execute  the  laws."  October  23d  he 
spoke  at  Cooper  Institute,  New  York  City.  "  He  was 
greeted  by  one  of  the  largest  and  most  distinguished  audi- 
ences ever  assembled  in  the  building,"  said  the  New  York 
Tribune,  "  and  his  response  to  their  greeting  was  one  of 
his  finest  achievements."  His  speech  was  an  eloquent 
defence  of  his  party,  its  record,  its  position,  and  intentions. 
He  began  : 

"  I  come  before  you  to-night  from  my  distant  home  to  vindicate  and 
defend  the  principles  and  the  policy  of  that  noble  Union-Republican 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  309 

organization,  which  alone,  of  all  other  parties  in  this  broad  land,  from 
the  hour  that  the  first  gun  was  fired  on  Surnter  until  the  last  rebel  sword 
flashed  before  Richmond,  never  despaired  of  the  American  Republic. 
[Applause.]  Its  past  is  crowned  with  the  glory  of  having  saved  this 
Union  from  the  menaces  of  the  sword  of  treason.  I  know  that  the  un- 
faltering heroism  of  our  soldiers  on  every  battle-field  upon  the  land,  and 
'of  our  sailors  on  every  wave-rocked  monitor  and  frigate  upon  the  sea, 
gave  to  us  our  victories,  lifting  us  from  every  valley  of  disaster  and 
reverse,  and  planting  our  feet  on  the  sun-crowned  heights  of  victory. 
[Applause.]  But  it  was  the  action  of  the  Union-Republican  Party  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  that  placed  that  army  in  the  field.  It  was 
organized  by  law,  it  was  armed  and  equipped  by  law,  it  was  fed  and 
clothed  by  law,  it  was  re-enforced  by  law  ;  and  when  the  time  came  that 
this  party  had  to  meet,  in  the  face  of  the  defeats  of  1862,  the  odium  of 
tax-laws,  that  the  banner  might  be  kept  flying  in  the  field,  and  the  draft- 
laws,  that  our  ranks  might  be  kept  full,  we  went  forward  faithfully  and 
fearlessly,  defying  all  prejudice,  and  placed  those  laws  upon  our  statute- 
books,  that  through  them  the  country  might  live,  and  not  die.  [Ap- 
plause.]" 

They  could  not  obtain  indemnity  for  the  past,  he  said  ; 
"  the  soldiers  of  the  Union  sleep  the  sleep  that  knows  no 
waking  ;"  but  they  had  the  power  to  demand  security  for 
the  future,  "  and  that,  God  helping  us,  we  intend  to  have, 
not  only  in  legislation,  but  imbedded  in  the  imperishable 
bulwarks  of  the  national  Constitution,  against  which  the 
waves  of  secession  may  dash  in  the  future,  but  in  vain." 
No  party  in  the  country  had  so  longed  and  labored  for 
peace  as  this  Union-Republican  Party.  "  We  are  anxious 
to  end  this  turmoil  ;  we  are  anxious  to  have  reconstruction 
an  accomplished  fact  ;  we  are  anxious  to  welcome  back 
the  old  States  around  the  council-table  of  the  nation  ;  but 
we  are  anxious  to  have  it  done  on  right  terms,  on  just 
terms,  on  terms  under  which  every  Union  man  through- 
out the  entire  South,  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande, 
can  stand  up  and  say  he  loves  the  flag  and  loves  the 
Union,  without  fear,  reproach,  dishonor,  or  ostracism  ;  and 
we  will  take  no  less." 

The  first  session  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  proposed 
as  the  basis  of  restoration  the  adoption  of  a  constitutional 
amendment,  "  a  bond  of  public  justice  and  of  public  safety 
combined,  to  be  embodied  in  our  national  Constitution, 


310  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

to  show  to  our  posterity  that  patriotism  was  a  virtue  and 
rebellion  a  crime.  It  was  scouted,  kicked  out  of  every 
Legislature  in  every  State  of  the  South  which  had  been 
reconstructed  under  the  unwise  policy  of  Andrew  John- 
son." They  were  then  obliged  to  devise  some  other  plan, 
and  at  the  second  session  of  the  same  Congress  "  we  made 
the  basis  of  our  reconstruction,  first,  every  loyal  man  in 
the  South,  and  then  we  gave  the  ballot  to  every  man  who 
had  only  been  a  rebel,  who  had  not  added  to  treason  the 
crime  of  perjury."  This  also  they  rejected.  "  They  said 
they  would  not  register  at  all,  and  if  they  did  register,  they 
would  vote  against  holding  conventions.  They  can  do  as 
they  please.  Upon  them  rests  the  responsibility,  not  upon 
us.  They  may  vote  down  reconstruction  in  three  States — 
Alabama,  Arkansas,  and  Texas — and  when  they  do  it,  we 
shall,  as  Providence,  perhaps,  intended,  at  the  Presidential 
election  have  the  sharp,  direct  issue  before  the  people  of  the 
country,  ''Will  you  have  rebel  governments  in  these 
States,  or  will  you  have  governments  resting  on  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  ? '  and  I  am  not  afraid  of  the  decision." 
He  discussed  the  acts  of  the  President,  denouncing 
them  as  usurpations.  Congress  had  declared  that  no  legal 
governments  exist  in  the  South.  Mr.  Johnson's  amnesty 
proclamation  expressly  declared  the  contrary.  Congress 
had  temporarily  disfranchised  certain  classes  of  rebels. 
Yet  in  the  teeth  of  that  action  the  President  assumed  to 
amnesty  them.  Reciting  the  Presidential  oath  prescribed 
by  the  Constitution,  "  Who  will  say  that  Andrew  Johnson 
has  faithfully  kept  that  oath?"  he  asked.  "  He  would 
hardly  say  so  himself.  There  has  been  a  good  deal  of 
misrepresentation  of  what  I  said  in  Ohio,"  he  continued. 
"  I  will  say  again  exactly  what  I  said  there.  I  do  not  in- 
tend to  take  back  my  words.  I  said  that  when  Congress 
assembled  again,  if  they  find  that  the  laws  cannot  be  ex- 
ecuted, that  the  President  will  not  execute  them,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  uses  his  executive  power  to  resist  the  laws  of 
Congress,  and  to  keep  the  country  in  turmoil,  then  I  said 
that  there  was  only  one  resort,  and  our  fathers  put  upon 
us  the  responsibility  of  that  resort."  (Great  cheering.  A 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  311 

Impeach  him.")  He  denounced  the  suspension  of 
Secretary  Stanton,  the  removal  of  Sheridan  and  Sickles. 
"James  Madison  says  :  '  Wanton  removal  of  meritorious 
officers  would  subject  the  President  to  impeachment  and 
removal  from  his  own  high  trust.'  "  Alluding  to  the  re- 
ported organization  of  troops  in  Maryland  and  the  threats 
with  reference  to  Congress  published  in  the  President's 
organs,  he  said  : 

"  I  do  not  believe  there  is  any  one  who  dare  execute  these  threats  that 
I  have  read  to  you  from  these  organs  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States  ;  but  this  I  did  say  in  Ohio,  that  if  any  one  in  this  broad  land  by 
revolutionary  force  destroys  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  over- 
throws the  law-making  power  of  this  country,  and  drives  it  from  its  halls 
by  illegal  military  power — I  care  not  who  that  man  is,  be  he  high  or  low, 
if  we  have  a  country,  he  will  afterward  be  tried  as  a  traitor,  he  will  die  a 
traitor's  death,  and  fill  a  traitor's  grave.  [Immense  applause.]  I  have 
no  fear  of  any  such  thing.  I  use  no  threats  ;  I  am  not  in  the  habit  of 
doing  it  ;  but  I  utter  that  prediction,  knowing,  as  I  believe,  the  will  of  the 
people,  and  what  their  own  hearts  and  consciences  would  demand.  There 
has  been  one  rebellion  ;  that  is  only  remembered  in  broken  hearts  and 
crowded  graveyards  ;  weeds  of  mourning  and  vacant  chairs  in  every 
household  ;  weary  crutches,  empty  sleeves,  pallid  faces,  wasted  frames  ; 
a  heavy  debt  and  taxes  ;  but  if  there  is  to  be  another  rebellion  after  this — 
if  the  law-making  power,  which  is  the  people  speaking  through  their 
Senators  and  Representatives,  is  to  be  trampled  under  foot  by  revolu- 
tionary force,  I  believe  in  my  heart  there  will  be  some  example  made  to 
go  down  into  American  history  as  a  warning,  that  no  man  hereafter  shall 
gamble  with  the  peace  of  this  country  and  lose  nothing  by  the  stake." 

He  ended  as  he  began  : 

"I  turn  gladly  from  this  dark  picture  I  have  painted  of  the  usur- 
pations of  your  President  and  the  recreancy  of  those  who  call  them- 
selves the  Democratic  Party  to  that  party  we  love  in  our  heart  of  hearts. 
Oh,  my  friends,  its  victories  are  enshrined  in  our  history  !  You  must  tear 
out  from  the  annals  of  our  country  its  brightest  pages  before  posterity 
shall  forget  the  victories  and  the  bright  deeds  of  this  noble  party,  of 
which  yoa  and  I  are  part  and  parcel." 

The  full  history  of  this  critical  year  has  yet  to  be  writ- 
ten. It  is  plain,  however,  from  the  fulminations  of  the 
Johnson  press,  the  organization  of  the  Maryland  militia, 
and  the  President's  open  machinations  to  circumvent  Con- 
gress and  sustain  his  own  policy  of  reconstruction,  that  the 


312  ,  SCHU YLER  COLFAX. 

country  narrowly  escaped  a  very  serious  peril.  The  proj- 
ect of  assembling  Mr.  Johnson's  Southern  Senators  and 
Representatives  and  his  adherents  in  Congress,  declar- 
ing them  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  supporting 
the  declaration  by  force  of  arms,  and  thus  consummating, 
if  possible,  a  revolution  in  the  interest  of  the  ex-Confeder- 
ates, was  seriously  contemplated  and  discussed  by  the 
President.  Doubtless  it  ended  in  discussion  only  for  lack 
of  the  unqualified  adherence  to  the  President  of  General 
Grant.  At  one  time,  when  Grant  accepted  the  War  Office, 
and  superseded  Sheridan  at  New  Orleans  by  Hancock,  it 
looked  as  though  he  had  determined  to  side  with  the  Presi- 
dent against  Congress.  Journals  like  the  New  York  Tribune 
took  that  view  of  his  action,  and  questioned  it  accord- 
ingly.1 But  when  Congress  asserted  itself,  or  rather  as- 
serted the  law,  the  general  abandoned  the  President,  and 
what  followed  destroyed  the  President's  remaining  power 
for  mischief. 

The  fall  elections  in  the  great  central  States  showed  a 
more  considerable  reaction  against  the  Unionists  than  any 
election  since  1862.  It  was  an  "  off-year,"  and  people's 
feelings,  like  the  tides,  ebb  and  flow.  The  taxes  were 
severely  felt,  and  the  appropriations  were  still  reminiscent 
of  war  times.  Secretary  McCulloch  was  steadily  contract- 
ing the  currency  by  retiring  the  legal-tender  notes,  and  the 
Democratic  leaders  had  the  finesse  to  make  the  Republicans 
appear  responsible  for  it,  and  for  the  stealing  of  ninety  per 
cent  of  the  two-dollar  gallon-tax  on  spirits,  although  the 
Administration  had  long  since  become  completely  Tyler- 
ized.  There  was  delay  in  reconstruction  and  in  voting 
the  soldiers'  bounties  ;  and  the  constitutional  amendment 
involving  negro  suffrage,  good  enough  for  the  rebel  States, 
was  a  distasteful  dose  to  some  of  the  loyal  States.  The 
people  had  been  left  behind  by  their  Congress.  The  oppo- 
sition, on  the  other  hand,  were  alive  at  every  point,  and, 


1.  Grant's  letter  of  August  17th  to  Johnson,  written  at  Johnson's  request  for  sugges- 
tions with  reference  to  the  reassignment  of  the  generals  in  command  in  the  South,  was 
published  August  27th.  This  letter  satisfied  the  Tribune,  which,  since  the  15th,  had 
questioned  General  Grant's  position  and  intentions. 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  313 

encouraged  by  Mr.  Johnson's  success  in  obstruction,  were 
making  a  last  desperate  effort  to  defeat  Congressional  re- 
construction, which  threatened  to  give  the  South  to  the 
Republicans  forever.  As  a  master  inducement  to  voters, 
they  proposed  to  cancel  the  national  debt  by  the  issue  of 
an  ocean  of  greenbacks,  thus  saving  the  interest  on  the 
bonds,  and  subjecting  the  money  in  them  to  taxation. 

During  the  summer  many  newspapers  in  all  parts  of 
the  country  and  some  county  conventions  in  Mr.  Colfax' s 
district  signified  their  preference  for  him  for  President. 
The  following  is  representative  of  all  of  them  : 

"  There  is  one  man,  however,  on  whom  the  eyes  of  Republicans  have 
for  some  time  been  turned  with  intense  interest,  and  that  interest  in- 
creases every  day  the  more  his  character  and  his  actions  have  been  scruti- 
nized. This  man  is  Schuyler  Colfax,  of  Indiana.  As  a  Congressman  and 
Speaker  of  the  House  he  has  made  his  mark  at  once  so  palpably  that 
none  can  fail  to  see  it.  There  is  a  freshness  of  outspoken  honesty,  of 
principle,  and  love  of  the  Union  about  him,  which  has  drawn  the  hearts 
of  hosts  of  Union  men  toward  him.  His  head  is  clear  and  his  heart  is 
sound,  and  he  consecrates  the  powers  of  the  one  and  the  impulses  of  the 
other  toward  the  one  great  object — the  securing  the  legitimate  results  of 
the  victory  of  the  Union  over  rebellion. 

"  As  Speaker  of  the  House  he  has  proved  that  he  is  possessed  of 
executive  ability  of  the  highest  order,  and  in  all  other  respects  he  presents 
himself  before  the  country  as  one  on  whom  the  mantle  of  Lincoln  has 
fallen.  For  masterly  summing  up  of  the  issues  of  the  day,  his  various 
short  speeches  which  have  been  published  have  never  been  surpassed. 
Terse,  pointed,  yet  never  bitter,  but  with  a  vein  of  kind  feeling  for  his 
opponents  in  error,  they  continually  remind  us  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  The  Republican  Party  can  trust,  with  unlimited  confidence,  Schuyler 
Colfax  to  maintain  their  principles  in  all  their  integrity  at  all  hazards  and 
under  all  circumstances.  Faithlessness  to  that  freedom  which  he  loves 
with  so  great  a  love,  and  into  the  vindication  of  which  from  his  first 
entrance  into  public  life  he  has  thrown  all  his  heart  and  soul  with  all  the 
vigor  peculiarly  characteristic  of  his  nature,  is  impossible  with  Schuyler 
Colfax.  Contemplating  his  whole  public  course,  we  think  that  all,  even 
his  political  opponents,  must  feel  instinctively  that  he  would  make  a  good 
President.  In  that  word  good  is  summed  up  what  the  nation  needs  in  a 
President,  what  it  lost  in  the  death  of  Lincoln,  but  would  again  recover 
with  Schuyler  Colfax  in  the  Presidential  Chair."  l 

But  when  Mr.  Colfax  returned  home  from  the  fall  can- 

1.  Kepubliehed  from  the  Yonkers  Statesman  in  the  New  York   Tribune  of  August 
27th,  1867. 


3 14  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

vass,  none  knew  so  well  as  he  that  the  people  had  already 
awarded  the  next  Presidency  to  General  Grant.  He  had 
seen  it  in  fifty  audiences  between  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Hudson.  Earlier  there  had  been  misgivings.  The  gen- 
eral was  known  to  have  been  formerly  a  Democrat,  he  had 
had  no  political  training  or  experience,  and  many  doubted 
whether  his  sympathies  were  with  the  President  or  with 
Congress.  Indeed,  it  was  the  Johnson  men  in  New  York 
who  first  formally  proposed  him  for  the  great  office.  He 
was  reticent  beyond  all  other  men,  but  was  understood  to 
be  indisposed  to  give  up  his  life  office  at  the  head  of  the 
army,  even  for  the  Presidency.  He  had  the  prestige  of  the 
successful  soldier.  But  for  his  capacity  as  a  soldier,  it  is 
extremely  doubtful  if  the  Rebellion  could  have  been  sup- 
pressed at  all.  Although  millions  had  been  equally  as  de- 
voted and  faithful,  to  the  conqueror  of  Lee,  after  all,  the 
Union  owed  its  preservation  ;  because  without  his  leader- 
ship the  devotion  and  sacrifices  of  all  the  rest  would  have 
been  unavailing.  The  times  were  still  unsettled,  turbu- 
lent ;  the  South,  encouraged  by  the  President  and  a  great 
part  of  the  North,  almost  in  the  temper  for  another  out- 
break. General  Grant  would,  at  least,  keep  the  peace.  He 
soon  declined 'to  be  the  President's  tool  as  Secretary  of 
War,  and  Johnson  thereupon  charged  him  with  breaking 
his  word.  He  wrote  the  President  that  he  regarded  "  the 
whole  matter  as  an  attempt  to  involve  me  in  resistance  of 
law,  for  which  you  hesitated  to  assume  the  responsibility, 
in  order  to  destroy  my  character  before  the  country." 
This  was  all,  perhaps  more  than  all  that  was  needed  to 
make  him  the  irrevocable  choice  of  Republicans  for  the 
Chief  Magistracy.  Mr.  Colfax  caught  all  this  from  his 
audiences,  and  after  the  canvass  of  that  fall  he  never  again 
thought  of  his  own  elevation  to  the  Presidency  as  a  pos- 
sibility. 

Before  leaving  'for  Washington  he  delivered  his  lect- 
ure "  Across  the  Continent  "  for  the  benefit  of  the  Grand 
Army  Post  at  South  Bend,  saying  at  the  close  that  it  would 
never  be  repeated.  His  other  duties  had  become  too  en- 
grossing, and  he  ceased  lecturing  for  some  years. 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  315 

Upon  the  meeting  of  Congress,  November  2ist,  the 
standing  committees  were  announced.  General  Schenck 
was  appointed  Chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Commit- 
tee, Justin  S.  Morrill  having  been  translated  to  the  Senate. 
Of  this  the  Speaker  writes  Sinclair  : 

"  I  was  sorry  to  disappoint  Garfield,  whom  I  love,  and  who  had  set 
his  heart  on  being  Chairman  of  Ways  and  Means.  But  he  was  below 
Hooper  on  the  committee,  and  to  jump  Hooper  with  one  lower  would 
have  insulted  him.  I  had  an  idea  of  settling  the  difficulty  by  taking 
Shellabarger,  but  when  his  health  failed  last  summer  I  turned  toward 
Schenck,  who  was  in  Congress  years  ago,  a  great  worker,  and  one  of  our 
ablest  debaters.  It  surprised  him,  as  it  did  the  House,  but  fifty  members 
have  told  me  I  hit  it  just  right.  Garfield  is  Chairman  of  Military  Affairs, 
which  for  his  third  term  is  better  than  I  got  at  that  stage,  but  is  disap- 
pointed. In  spite  of  what  the  correspondents  say,  there  was  never  less 
discontent  with  the  committees,  nearly  all  acknowledging,  even  the  disap- 
pointed ones,  that  they  are  wisely  and  very  strongly  made." 

Mr.  Greeley  writes  him  :  "  I  think  your  committees  are 
very  skilfully  made  up."  He  tells  Sinclair  that  "  we  have 
settled  down  to  housekeeping  [No.  7  Lafayette  Square]  as 
cosily  as  possible,  and  find  the  house  more  comfortable 
than  we  expected.  We  shall  have  no  dinner  parties,  but 
plain  family  ones,  as  I  have  no  charming  young  wife  to 
preside.  And  without  wine — won't  that  be  odd  here  ?"  A 
story  is  told  of  two  gentlemen  calling  at  Governor  Mor- 
gan's, where  the  National  Republican  Committee  were  en- 
joying a  wine  supper.  "  Take  away  your  thin  potations, 
Morgan,  and  let  us  have  something  to  drink,"  said  one  of 
them.  "  Why,  gentlemen,  you  must  have  been  dining 
with  Mr.  Speaker  Colfax,"  was  the  Governor's  reply.  But 
Colfax's  style  of  hospitality  is  the  coming  style,  while 
Morgan's  is  destined  to  pass  away.  With  every  fleeting 
year  the  people  who  "  dare  not  drink"  increase  in  number.1 

The  President's  message  argued  the  unconstitutionality 
and  the  failure  of  Congressional  reconstruction.  He  de- 
nounced the  Tenure-of-Office  Act,  and  generally  assailed 
the  action  of  Congress.  The  House  Judiciary  Committee 

1.  "  WHO  DARES  ?— At  a  dinner  party  in  New  York,  where  illustrious  American  and 
foreign  statesmen  were  seated  around  the  table,  Mr.  Colfax,  then  a  Senator,  declined  to 
take  wine  ;  whereupon  a  friend  exclaimed,  half -jestingly :  '  Colfax  dare  not  drink  1' 
'  You  are  right,'  was  the  noble  answer ;  '  I  dare  not  drink.'  "—English  Paper. 


SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

made  majority  and  minority  reports  on  the  impeachment 
of  Mr.  Johnson,  and  while  the  country  grew  excited  about 
it,  the  House,  on  the  8th  of  December,  voted  impeachment 
down,  108  to  57,  so  loath  were  the  majority  to  proceed  to 
that  extremity,  and  so  anxious  to  legislate  on  many  other 
subjects  which  required  attention.  On  the  same  day  the 
House  adopted  a  resolution,  by  a  vote  of  112  to  32,  to  ad- 
here to  the  reconstruction  acts.  With  reference  to  this, 
the  Speaker  wrote  to  Mr.  Conway,  of  New  Orleans  : 

"  You  need  not  fear  that  Congress  will  take  any  backward  steps  in 
reconstruction.  We  have  staked  our  political  existence  on  the  principle 
that  the  States  lately  in  rebellion  shall  be  organized  on  the  enduring 
corner-stones  of  loyalty  and  justice.  While  I  do  not  believe  in  confisca- 
tion, or  anything  looking  like  revenge,  and  while  I  hope  to  see  suffrage 
as  universal  as  safety  to  the  cause  of  loyalty  will  permit,  and  the  restored 
States  guaranteeing  education  to  all,  I  would  not  modify  the  terms  of  re- 
construction in  any  essential  feature  one  hair's-breadth. " 

Congress  passed  still  another  supplementary  reconstruc- 
tion bill,  this  time  placing  the  execution  of  the  law  in  the 
hands  of  the  General  of  the  Army.  The  Senate  vindicated 
Secretary  Stan  ton,  and  General  Grant  surrendered  to  him 
the  War  Office.  Mr.  Johnson  then  undertook  to  carry  out 
his  purposes  through  the  General  of  the  Army,  indepen- 
dently of,  and,  indeed,  in  opposition  to,  the  Secretary  of 
War.  General  Grant  proving  altogether  intractable  in. 
this  undertaking,  the  President  nominated  Sherman  Brevet- 
General,  with  the  view  of  having  him  arrest  Grant  for  dis- 
obedience of  orders.  General  Sherman  declined  any  honor 
that  would  affect  injuriously  the  reputation  of  his  friend 
Grant.  General  George  H.  Thomas  was  then  tempted  in 
like  manner  by  the  President.  He  notified  the  Senate  by 
letter  that  he  hoped  he  would  not  be  confirmed. 

Baffled  in  securing  a  general  of  high  rank  subservient 
to  his  purposes,  the  President,  on  the  2ist  of  February, 
issued  an  order  removing  Stanton,  and  directing  Adjutant- 
General  Lorenzo  Thomas  to  take  charge  of  the  War  Office. 
The  Senate  immediately  went  into  executive  session,  and 
voted  the  President's  action  illegal,  25  to  6,  notifying  the 
President,  General  Lorenzo  Thomas,  and  Secretary  Stan- 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  317 

ton  of  this  their  action.  General  Thomas  proposed  to  take 
possession  of  the  office,  nevertheless,  by  force,  but  was  ar- 
rested under  the  Tenure-of-Office  law,  on  complaint  of 
Stanton,  and  immediately  admitted  to  bail.  He  did  not 
renew  his  attempt  to  take  possession  of  the  War  Office,  but 
it  was  plain  at  last  to  every  one  that  a  crisis  had  come. 
People  who  had  for  two  years  protested  against  impeach- 
ment now  said  :  "  Impeach  !"  On  the  24th  of  February, 
1868,  the  House  resolved,  126  to  47,  the  Speaker  voting 
aye,  "  that  Andrew  Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States, 
be  impeached  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  in  office." 
In  his  last  desperate  move,  the  President  disclaimed  any 
other  intent  than  to  have  the  constitutionality  of  the  Tenure- 
of-Office  law  tested. 

His  formal  impeachment  and  trial  followed,  occupying 
public  attention  about  three  months.  Not  since  the  assas- 
sination of  Lincoln  had  there  been  so  great  excitement. 
But  there  was  a  feeling  of  relief  that  some  definite  result 
was  at  last  promised.  "  Let  us  have  peace."  The  trial 
was  conducted  with  the  utmost  decorum  and  impartiality, 
no  one  at  first  having  any  doubt  of  its  result.  In  declining 
an  invitation  to  attend  the  opening  of  the  new  club  house 
of  the  Union  League  Club  in  New  York,  the  Speaker 
wrote  : 

"  Without  the  slightest  attempt  at  party  concentration,  the  Republican 
Representatives  voted,  as  one  man,  that  the  issue  the  President  seemed 
determined  to  force  upon  them  should  be  met.  In  that  Senate  Chamber 
where  Andrew  Johnson  was  inaugurated  Vice-President,  from  which, 
alas  !  an  assassin's  bullet  elevated  him  to  the  Presidency,  the  greatest  of 
American  trials  progresses,  day  by  day.  Amid  the  sharp  encounters  of 
the  able  lawyers  there  arrayed  against  each  other,  I  can  never  forget  that 
solemn  Presidential  oath,  by  which,  in  the  peculiar  language  of  the  Con- 
stitution, the  Chief  Magistrate  swears  that  '  he  will  take  care  that  the  laws 
be  faithfully  executed  ; '  and  side  by  side  with  that  oath,  memory  con- 
stantly arrays  the  Presidential  acts  of  the  last  two  years.  While  not  pre- 
suming to  discuss  the  question  with  Senators,  whose  oaths  bind  them  to 
administer  impartial  justice,  I  have  not  been  willing  to  doubt  the  result. 
His  conviction  ends  the  incessant  resistance  to  law,  which  revived  the 
rebel  spirit  of  the  South,  with  its  mournful  record  of  riot,  public  massacre, 
and  private  assassination,  and  which  has  kept  the  whole  country  in  tur- 
moil and  discord.  His  acquittal  indorses  all  his  claims  of  power  for  the 


3l8  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

remainder  of  his  Presidential  term,  claims  imperilling  the  well-being  of 
the  country  ;  and  I  believe  the  impartial  justice  of  the  Senate  will  save  the 
Republic  from  such  a  calamity." 

The  President  escaped  conviction  by  one  vote,  seven 
Republican  Senators  voting  against  it,  one  or  two  of  them 
at  least  under  grave  suspicion.  To  all  of  them  the  Re- 
publican Party  said  :  "Be  no  more  Senators  of  mine  !" 
The  object  sought,  however,  had  been  attained.  Impeach- 
ment of  the  President  had  been  discussed  for  two  years, 
considered  by  committees,  reported  on,  postponed,  voted 
down,  voted  up.  When  it  was  finally  determined  on,  that 
action,  by  all  reasonable  calculation,  involved  the  certainty 
of  conviction.  The  South  evidently  so  regarded  it,  for  it 
acted  on  that  conclusion.  So  that  when  the  Senate  voted 
on  the  eleventh  article,  and  it  was  lost  by  one  vote,  and 
afterward  on  articles  one  and  two,  and  they  were  lost,  and 
the  high  court  of  impeachment  adjourned  sine  die,  six  of 
the  rebel  States  had  accepted  the  terms  of  Congress.  A 
month  later  they  were  admitted  by  a  bill  passed  over  the 
veto  in  both  Houses,  30  to  8  in  the  Senate,  105  to  30  in  the 
House.  All  the  good  that  could  have  accrued  from  the 
President's  deposition  was  thus  secured,  and  the  possible 
harm  avoided. 

The  Republicans  had  meanwhile  nominated  Grant  and 
Colfax  for  President  and  Vice-President,  nominations 
which  were  regarded  as  equivalent  to  elections.  The  alter- 
cations and  ill-feeling  growing  out  of  the  impeachment 
proceedings  were  soon  alleviated,  if  not  altogether  removed. 
The  clouds  that  had  gathered  broke  away,  and  the  skies 
brightened  in  every  quarter.  As  in  1866,  there  was  no 
middle  party,  and  no  chance  of  one.  The  contest  was  ap- 
pealed to  the  people,  but  with  the  advantage  on  the  part 
of  the  Republicans  that  their  work  was  mainly  accom- 
plished. There  was  no  object  in  further  factious  resistance 
to  the  will  of  Congress. 

Left  in  the  main  to  the  poor  and  ignorant  for  support, 
the  reconstructed  State  governments  had  much  to  contend 
with  ;  but  they  placed  the  principles  of  free  institutions  in 
their  organic  laws,  and  were  enabled  to  hold  them  there 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  319 

until  all  thought  of  changing  them  was  substantially  out- 
grown or  rendered  futile  ;  and  although  the  fact  may  not 
as  yet  altogether  conform  to  the  law,  the  natural  tendency 
is  and  must  be  in  that  direction.  These  governments  sub- 
sisted, of  course,  only  through  the  support  of  the  Presi- 
dent. Had  Horatio  Seymour  instead  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant 
been  elected  President  in  1868,  there  would  have  been  a 
counter-revolution  in  the  South  ;  or  if  not  this,  a  truce 
patched  up  that  sooner  or  later  would  have  broken  down 
and  again  precipitated  war. 

There  is  no  more  doubt  of  the  wisdom  than  of  the  jus- 
tice of  the  Republicans  in  these  great  matters.  They  did 
what  they  ought  to  have  done.  They  did  it  as  they  should 
have  done  it.  They  did  nothing  they  ought  not  to  have 
done.  They  ought  to  have  resisted  the  extension  of 
slavery  ;  they  ought  to  have  defended  the  integrity  of  the 
Union  ;  they  ought  to  have  abolished  slavery  and  secured 
the  personal  liberty  of  the  emancipated  slaves.  These 
things  they  did.  They  ought  not  to  have  executed  any 
one  for  treason  ;  they  ought  not  to  have  reinstated  certain 
classes  of  forsworn  traitors  in  their  forfeited  political 
rights  ;  they  ought  not  to  have  excluded  the  great  mass  of 
ex-rebels  from  participation  in  the  reconstruction  of  their 
prostrate  States  ;  and  these  things  they  did  not.  The  evils 
charged  to  their  policy  were  inherent  in  the  conditions,  and 
for  these  they  were  not  responsible.  Had  they  been  met  in 
their  own  spirit  by  the  ruling  class  of  the  South,  most  of 
these  evils  would  have  been  avoided.  As  the  years  pass 
the  men  of  those  times  will  be  more  and  more  seen  and 
acknowledged  to  have  played  their  part  as  worthily  as  did 
their  fathers  in  the  English  and  American  revolutions. 

There  was  a  general  desire  in  Indiana  to  nominate  Mr. 
Colfax  for  Governor.  In  answer  to  many,  he  wrote  Mr. 
Harvey,  of  Indianapolis,  declining  to  be  considered  a  can- 
didate. He  believed  it  to  be  his  duty  to  serve  out  his  term 
as  Speaker.  Referring  to  national  politics,  he  said  that 
Congress  would  reduce  taxation,  stop  contraction,  retrench 
in  expenditures,  see  that  the  taxes  were  honestly  collected 
and  returned,  and  provide  for  the  protection  of  every 


320  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

American  citizen.  He  aimed,  by  citing  former  partings  of 
the  political  clouds,  to  dissipate  "  the  hopeful  boastings  of 
our  opponents."  On  the  eve  of  the  assembling  of  the 
State  Convention,  February  2oth,  he  wrote  more  at  length 
to  Governor  Baker,  reciting  the  successes  of  the  Union- 
Republican  Party  against  steady  and  bitter  Democratic 
opposition.  "  And  the  President,"  said  he,  "  now  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  Democratic  Party,  which  opposed  his 
election,  stands  self-convicted  of  having  striven  to  induce 
the  General  of  our  Army  to  defy  a  law  he  did  not  himself 
dare  to  resist.  The  heart  of  the  country  turns  toward  the 
single-hearted  and  illustrious  officer,  bitterly  denounced  as 
he  has  been,  with  more  affection  than  ever,  longing  for  the 
hour  when  it  can  call  him  to  the  high  place  honored  by  the 
father  of  the  country  that  our  greatest  soldier  saved." 

The  State  Convention  of  Indiana  signified  its  choice  of 
Ulysses  S.  Grant  for  the  Presidency  and  of  Schuyler  Col- 
fax  for  the  Vice- Presidency,  "  with  the  wildest  cheers,  the 
convention  rising  to  a  vote."  Since  General  Grant  had 
become  the  settled  choice  of  the  people  for  President,  many 
newspaper  writers  had  been  urging  Mr.  Colfax  for  Vice- 
President.  The  following  appeared  in  the  Washington 
correspondence  of  the  New  York  Independent : 

"  As  a  presiding  officer,  Mr.  Colfax  has  probably  no  equal  in  this 
country  or  Europe.  As  a  politician  he  seems  to  have  made,  thus  far,  no 
mistakes.  His  course  has  always  been  true,  noble,  and  straightforward, 
and  his  popularity  seems  to  be  unbounded.  He  flies  too  high  to  be  hit  by 
any  shot,  and  if  nominated  for  either  of  the  two  highest  offices  in  the  gift 
of  the  nation,  he  will  go  through  the  conflict,  it  is  believed,  unscathed,  a 
triumphant  victor." 

To  a  gentleman  who  wrote  him  of  the  personal  prefer- 
ence for  him  in  New  Jersey,  the  Speaker  replied  : 

"  At  Chicago  the  first  question  above  all  others  should  be,  Who  will 
most  strengthen  the  Grant  ticket  in  the  doubtful  States — the  real  battle- 
field ?  If  the  answer  selects  another,  I  shall  say  Amen  with  all  my  heart, 
for  with  me  all  personal  considerations  are  subordinate  to  the  cause  we 
love.  If  I  should  be  nominated,  I  should  regard  it  as  a  high  honor,  and 
should  be  especially  proud  of  the  vote  of  New  Jersey,  because  it  is  the 
home  of  my  ancestry." 

When  the  Republican  Convention  met  in  Chicago,  May 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  321 

2ist,  1868,  the  nomination  for  the  Vice-Presidency  was  the 
great  prize  to  be  awarded,  as  the  convention  had  merely 
to  ratify  the  choice  of  the  people  for  the  Presidency.  The 
second  office  had  been  much  magnified  in  importance 
by  the  trouble  with  Mr.  Johnson.  No  one  was  seri- 
ously thought  of  who  would  not  have  graced  the  first 
place.  Accordingly,  the  nomination  for  Vice-President 
was  more  strenuously  sought  by  the  friends  of  distin- 
guished statesmen  than  at  any  previous  convention. 
Among  the  candidates  were  Benjamin  F.  Wade,  Reuben 
E.  Fenton,  Henry  Wilson,  Hannibal  Hamlin,  and  Andrew 
G.  Curtin,  and  the  delegates  had  been  selected  at  a  time 
when  it  was  supposed  that  Mr.  Wade,  as  President  of  the 
Senate,  would  succeed  to  the  Presidency,  through  the 
deposition  of  President  Johnson.  The  supporters  of  Fen- 
ton,  of  Wade,  and  of  Wilson  were  numerous,  well  organ- 
ized, and  early  on  the  ground.  Mr.  Colfax's  supporters, 
outside  of  Indiana,  were  scattered  and  but  imperfectly  or- 
ganized. Since  General  Grant  was  from  Illinois,  the  geo- 
graphical argument  was  against  Mr.  Colfax.  Under  the 
circumstances,  he  could  hardly  have  entertained  high  hopes 
of  the  nomination,  nor  did  he. 

Senator  Henry  S.  Lane,  of  Indiana,  placed  him  in  nom- 
ination in  the  National  Convention,  saying  :  "  He  is  from 
Indiana,  near  to  our  homes,  near  to  our  hearts.  We  know 
him,  we  love  him,  the  people  are  united  for  him,  there  is 
but  one  voice.  Although  his  residence  is  in  Indiana,  his 
fame  is  co-extensive  with  the  whole  country.  He  is  a 
young  man,  representing  the  religious  and  moral  senti- 
ment of  the  commonwealth,  and  to  a  great  extent  a  tried 
and  true  leader,  no  doubtful  man."  Mr.  Cortlandt  Parker, 
of  New  Jersey,  seconded  his  nomination  as  "  the  candidate 
of  the  young  men,  loved  by  them,  possessing  all  the 
charms  of  heart  and  the  distinctions  of  mind  of  the  true 
patriot."  Mr.  S.  M.  Cutcheon,  of  Michigan,  also  seconded 
the  nomination.  "  We  esteem  him  as  true  to  principle  as 
the  needle  to  the  pole.  We  trust  him,  we  love  him,  we 
have  watched  him — he  lives  just  over  our  border  ;  in  the 
State  of  Michigan  his  name  is  all-powerful.'1 


322  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 


Following  are  the  ballots  : 


*-"  >•• 


ist.  2d.  sd.  4th.  sth. 

Benjamin  F.  Wade 149        170        178        204        199 

Reuben  E.  Fenton 132        140        130        144        137 

Henry  Wilson 119        113         101          87          61 

Schuyler  Colfax 118        149        164        186        224 

Andrew  G.  Curtin 52          45          30 

Hannibal  Hamlin ....  30          30          25          25           19 

James  Speed , 22 

James  Harlan 16 

J.  A.  J.  Creswell 14 

William  D.  Kelley 6 

Before  the  fifth  ballot  was  announced  General  G.  M. 
Dodge,  chairman  of  the  Iowa  delegation,  got  the  floor, 
withdrew  three  or  four  of  Iowa's  votes  from  Fenton,  and 
cast  the  vote  of  Iowa  solid  for  Colfax.  Instantly  Colonel 
Alexander  K.  McClure's  voice  was  heard — "  Pennsylvania 
asks  to  change  her  vote  ;  she  casts  her  62  votes  for  Schuy- 
ler Colfax."  The  Indiana  delegation  cheered  until  their 
throats  gave  out.  The  galleries  heightened  and  prolonged 
the  tumult,  while  delegations  vied  with  one  another  in 
changing  off  for  the  coming  man.  After  he  had  thus  re- 
ceived 522  votes,  Fenton  still  having  75,  Wade  42,  and 
Wilson  ii,  on  motion  of  the  friends  of  Fenton,  seconded 
by  the  friends  of  Wade,  his  nomination  was  made  unani- 
mous. The  reporter  of  the  New  York  Tribune  wrote  : 

"  The  result  of  the  contest  is  a  surprise  to  almost  every  one.  Coif  ax's 
friends  had  not  been  working  with  as  much  noise  and  zeal  as  was  ex- 
pected of  them.  Both  last  night  and  this  morning  it  was  conceded  by 
almost  every  one  that  the  contest  was  really  between  Fenton  and  Wade, 
and  when  the  first  ballot  was  taken  the  impression  was  unchanged  ;  but 
if  the  majority  of  the  delegates  were  not  for  him,  the  masses  who  were 
looking  on  were.  Every  time  his  name  was  mentioned  the  enthusiasm 
was  greater  than  for  any  other  candidate,  and  this  did  as  much  as  any- 
thing to  effect  the  result." 

Mr.  Colfax  wrote  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lddy,  July  5th  : 

"  I  told  Bishop  Janes  that  the  meeting  of  the  Conference  [Methodist- 
Episcopal,  two  hundred  and  thirty  delegates,  representing  eight  thousand 
clergymen]  at  Chicago,  at  the  same  time  with  the  National  Convention, 
was  one  of  the  fortunate  things  for  me  with  which  my  whole  life  is  filled, 
and  but  for  that  I  would  not  have  been  nominated.  He  seemed  pleased 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  323 

at  the  acknowledgment,  and  said  he  thought  so  too  ;  that  the  leading 
members  were  a  unit  for  me,  and  said  so  wherever  it  was  proper.  I  miss 
you  from  the  Advocate,  but  I  think  your  decision  is  wise,  just  as  after 
three  terms  as  Speaker,  I  made  up  my  mind,  whether  the  Vice-Presi- 
dency was  or  was  not  higher  or  more  influential,  it  was  well  to  try  an- 
other field." 

Outside  of  Indiana  Mr.  Colfax's  strength  was  mainly  in 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  New  Jersey,  and  Vermont.  He  was 
the  second  choice  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  first  choice  of 
a  few  strong  men  in  different  delegations — California,  Illi- 
nois, Iowa,  and  more  markedly  in  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania, 
where  their  stand  for  him  was  very  important.  Had  Ohio 
remained  solid  for  Mr.  Wade,  he  might  have  won  the  prize. 
It  was  not  Wade,  however ;  it  was  Fenton  whom  the  poli- 
ticians had  determined  to  nominate.1 

The  news  was  received  at  South  Bend  with  bells  and 
bonfires,  bands  and  speeches,  and  "  the  people  turned  out 
in  mass  to  hear  the  dearest  wishes  of  their  hearts  con- 
firmed/' Democrats  joining  with  Republicans  in  these 
spontaneous  demonstrations  of  pleasure  at  the  success  of 
their  townsman. 

General  Grant  said  :  "  Well,  Colfax  is  the  most  popu- 
lar man  in  the  country,  and  the  only  thing  the  Democrats 
can  accuse  him  of  is  that  he  is  a  Republican." 

The  Speaker's  mother  said  :  "  He  was  my  candidate, 
and  I  thought  all  the  time  he  would  be  nominated." 

Acting  Vice-President  Wade  said  :  "  I  guess  it  will 
be  all  right  ;  he  deserves  it,  and  he  is  a  good  presiding 
officer." 

Governor  Fenton  telegraphed  :  "I  congratulate  you 
upon  your  nomination,  and  General  Grant  on  having  an 
associate  so  worthy  to  share  with  him  the  cordial  support 
of  the  people." 

Thaddeus  Stevens  wrote  from  his  sick-bed  :  "  I  must 
congratulate  you  in  writing,  if  congratulations  are  needed 
between  us.  I  was  for  Wade,  as  he  will  be  left  in  the 

1.  Senator  Henry  S.  Lane  writes  him  of  the  inside  workings  at  the  convention  : 
"  Our  whole  delegation  worked  for  your  nomination  honestly,  earnestly,  and,  I  am 
rejoiced  to  say,  effectively.  In  this  we  were  most  ably  seconded  by  our  old  friend 
John  D.  Def rees.  No  man  at  Chicago  did  more  for  your  nomination  than  he  did ; 
none,  perhaps,  so  much." 


324  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

cold,  and  not  for  any  personal  preference.  You  must  take 
care  of  him  when  I  am  dead  and  gone,  which  I  doubt  not 
the  party  will  do."  Within  three  months  Thaddeus  Ste- 
vens was  dead. 

The  candidate  for  the  Vice-Presidency  received  hun- 
dreds of  congratulatory  letters  and  dispatches.  Of  his 
praises  in  the  newspapers,  there  was  no  end.  "It  is  a 
noble,  glorious  ticket,"  said  the  New  York  Tribune.  "  Since 
the  days  of  Washington  and  Adams  we  have  had  none 
more  worthy  of  the  overwhelming  unanimous  support  of 
the  American  people  without  distinction  as  to  party." 
The  New  York  Herald  said  :  "  The  Chicago  Convention 
could  not  have  chosen  a  better  ticket.  Colfax  gives  that 
positive  strength  and  consistency  to  the  ticket  which  makes 
it  a  unit,  and  expands  the  circle  of  its  influence."  The 
choice  of  the  convention  was  universally  hailed  with  de- 
light and  enthusiasm  by  Republicans  ;  it  was  acknowl- 
edged to  be  most  happy  by  the  opposition.  Grant,  the 
great  soldier  ;  Colfax,  the  accomplished  statesman  ;  both 
simple-hearted  and  high-minded  ;  both  administrators  ; 
both  incapable  of  breach  of  trust  ;  both  in  sympathy  with 
the  loyal  people  ;  both  popular  beyond  parallel  from  ser- 
vices to  the  commonwealth. 

With  his  friends  around  him,  Colfax  received  dispatches 
from  the  convention  at  the  Speaker's  room  in  the  Capitol. 
When  his  selection  was  finally  announced,  he  was  over- 
whelmed with  congratulations,  Republicans  and  Demo- 
crats, Wilson  and  Wade  men  joining,  and  the  room  rang 
with  cheers  again  and  again.  He  immediately  sent  the 
dispatch  to  his  mother  on  Lafayette  Square.  As  he  left 
the  room  the  employes  in  the  building  gathered  around 
him,  and  in  the  most  affectionate  manner  tendered  their 
felicitations.  In  the  Capitol  grounds  people  who  knew 
his  sunny  face,  but  who  had  never  spoken  to  him  before, 
stopped  him  for  a  hand-shake  and  the  privilege  of  telling 
him  how  glad  they  were.  His  progress  up  Pennsylvania 
Avenue  was  an  ovation  participated  in  by  everybody. 

A  few  days  later,  at  the  residence  of  General  Grant, 
General  Joseph  R.  Hawley,  in  the  name  of  the  convention, 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  325 

formally  presented  the  nominations  to  the  distinguished 
gentlemen.  "  Cordially  agreeing  with  the  convention," 
said  Colfax,  when  it  came  his  turn  to  respond,  "  I  accept 
the  nomination  with  which  I  have  been  honored."  At  an 
earlier  hour  in  the  same  day  he  had  accepted  a  nomination 
to  the  same  office  by  a  convention  of  soldiers  and  sailors. 
Serenaded,  he  said  of  Grant :  "  Brave,  modest,  firm, 
speaking  by  deeds,  his  name  is  the  synonym  of  victory  ;" 
and  of  the  Republican  Party,  "  History  records  that  our  or- 
ganization saved  a  nation  and  emancipated  a  race.  On 
our  banner  is  inscribed,  '  Liberty  and  Loyalty,  Justice  and 
Public  Safety.'"  In  his  letter  of  acceptance  he  com- 
mented with  force  and  eloquence  on  the  wisdom  and 
strength  of  the  principles  announced  in  the  Republican 
platform. 

Congress  adjourned  on  the  3oth  of  July.  The  Speaker's 
reception  on  his  return  home  outdid  all  previous  recep- 
tions, effusive  as  these  had  always  been.  Escorted  by  the 
Chicago  Ninth  Ward  Tanners,  by  clubs,  bands,  and  com- 
mittees, his  train  of  twenty-five  crowded  cars  entered  South 
Bend  to  find  its  streets  thronged  by  thousands  of  his  towns- 
men and  his  country  constituents,  flags  and  streamers 
decorating  nearly  every  house,  bands  playing,  bells  ring- 
ing, and  whistles  screaming.  Welcomed  home  in  due 
form  by  Mayor  Humphreys,  he  replied  at  length,  touching 
politics  lightly,  but  dwelling  fondly  and  long  on  his  al- 
ways happy  relations  with  his  constituents.  He  talked  of 
times  past  in  a  charming  manner.  Later  in  the  day  there 
was  a  variety  of  political  speaking,  the  Speaker  taking  his 
turn.  Said  he  :  "If  treason  again  lifts  its  head,  bringing 
anarchy  and  civil  war  in  its  train,  it  will  not  be  the  fault 
of  the  Republican  Party.  It  stands  by  liberty,  by  justice, 
and  we  are  to  win  this  fight  as  we  did  in  1860,  because  we 
are  right/'  The  day  closed  with  a  pole-raising,  a  torch- 
light procession,  and  more  speaking  in  the  Court  House. 

The  echoes  of  this  home  festivity  had  hardly  died  away 
when  Mr.  Colfax  left  South  Bend  for  the  mountains  of 
Colorado,  with  the  following  party — namely,  his  mother, 
Sister  Carrie,  and  stepfather  ;  Miss  Sue  Matthews,  Miss 


326  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Nellie  Wade,  ex-Lieutenant-Governor  Bross,  Sam  Bowles 
and  daughter,  and  the  Speaker's  Secretary,  Will  Todd. 
Candidate  for  so  high  an  office,  it  did  not  comport  with  his 
ideas  of  propriety  to  engage  with  his  usual  activity  in  the 
canvass,  and,  besides,  he  needed  a  vacation.  The  trip  had 
to  be  made  in  part  by  stage,  and  had  not  yet  lost  the 
charm  of  novelty.  They  first  went  to  the  end  of  the  Union 
Pacific  track,  then  just  turning  the  crest  of  the  continent. 
Returning  to  Cheyenne,  a  day  and  a  night  by  stage 
brought  them  to  Denver.  After  a  few  days'  rest  they  pre- 
pared for  camping,  and  in  company  with  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Witter,  Governor  Hunt,  and  others,  making  the  party 
about  twenty  in  number,  they  undertook  the  tour  of  the 
parks.  These  parks  are  elevated  plains,  at  that  time  soli- 
tudes, accessible  only  by  private  conveyance.  The  weather 
in  August  and  September  is  perfect — days  without  clouds, 
nights  without  dew,  no  sudden  changes  of  temperature, 
air  invigorating,  no  pests  of  any  sort.  Then,  perhaps,  the 
pleasantest  haunt  in  the  world  for  the  camper,  the  railway 
has  since  made  the  whole  region  as  commonplace  as  the 
old  overland  emigrant  trail. 

Nothing  occurred  to  mar  the  enjoyment  of  the  Speaker's 
party,  save  one  night  spent  under  the  stress  of  an  Indian 
scare.  It  proved  a  false  alarm,  but  it  brought  together  a 
squad  of  mounted  miners,  who,  with  some  friendly  Ute 
chiefs,  escorted  them  several  days  on  their  return  trip  from 
those  mountain  mirrors — the  Twin  Lakes.  Climbing  up 
into  the  South  Park  from  the  Arkansas  River  by  way  of 
Trout  Creek,  they  lingered  and  looked  back  again  and 
again.  There  could  be  no  more  fascinating  view  ;  the  eye 
is  never  weary  of  the  ocean  nor  of  the  magnificent  towers 
of  the  Sawatch.  Then  through  the  South  Park  itself, 
purple  hills  away  to  the  right,  and  the  ancient  mountains 
on  the  left,  out  across  the  Kenosha  Summit,  down  the 
Platte,  over  the  foot-hills,  and  back  to  Denver. 

Toward  the  end  of  September  Mr.  Colfax  was  at  home 
again,  and  "  the  gossips  are  at  last  right,"  said  Mr. 
Bowles's  newspaper,  "  in  making  a  matrimonial  connec- 
tion for  the  Speaker.  He  is  engaged  to  Miss  Nellie  Wade, 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  327 

a  niece  of  Senator  Wade,  of  Ohio.  She  is  a  sweet,  sen- 
sible, accomplished  lady,  an  Ohio  farmer's  daughter,  quite 
worthy  of  the  place  she  is  destined  to  take.  Her  father, 
brother  of  the  Senator,  died  several  years  ago,  and  she 
spent  part  of  a  winter  in  Washington  two  years  since, 
when  the  acquaintance  began  with  Mr.  Colfax  and  his 
family,  which  has  ripened  into  this  interesting  relationship. 
The  Rocky  Mountains  whispered  the  sweet  secret  to  the 
world,  and  congratulations  are  echoed  back  from  all  quar- 
ters to  both  parties."  J 

In  October  Mr.  Colfax  actively  engaged  in  the  canvass, 
making  his  first  speech  at  Lafayette  to  twenty  thousand 

1.  A  TALK  OF  Two  WEDDING  RINGS  :  Three  or  four  months  before  he  died  Colfax 
wrote  from  Denver  to  his  friend  Mr.  Phoebus,  of  Old  Point  Comfort :  "  Did  lever  tell 
you  that  a  miner,  who  heard  of  our  engagement  on  our  mountain  trip— a  party  of  twenty 
of  us— sent  me  the  gold  he  had  washed  out  with  his  rocker  that  very  day,  and  asked 
me  to  have  Mrs.  Colfax's  wedding  ring  made  out  of  it,  as  it  is  ?" 

Miss  Wade  accompanied  the  Speaker's  party  on  the  invitation  of  Miss  Carrie  Mat- 
thews, the  Speaker  having  authorized  her  to  invite  a  friend.  Miss  Wade  wrote  Miss 
Matthews,  July  12th,  as  follows  :  "But  before  I  forget  it  I  want  to  tell  you  a  singular 
dream  I  had  about  you  one  night  last  week.  I  dreamed  that  you  and  I  were  sitting  in  an 
upper  window  of  an  old  and  very  high  mill.  A  clear  and  beautiful  stream  of  water  flowed 
by,  and  we  were  admiring  the  flashes  of  sunlight  upon  it,  when  all  at  once  you  glanced 
down  on  a  plat  of  grass  there  was  between  the  river  and  the  mill,  and  exclaimed,  '  O 
Nellie,  I  see  my  old  precious,  precious  ring  down  there  !'  and  immediately  started  for  it. 
When  you  got  down,  you  stooped  and  picked  it  up  and  put  it  on  your  finger.  It  was  an 
opal,  and  very  beautiful.  There  were  some  other  rings  lying  on  the  grass,  and  you  said, 
carelessly,  to  me :  '  Get  you  one,  Nellie.'  Wasn't  it  strange  ?  But  what  a  goose  I  am  to 
tell  you  of  my  dream  !  I  had  better  talk  about  our  travelling  dresses." 

On  the  4th  of  this  July  the  author,  then  editor  of  the  Eocky  Mountain  News,  and  a 
stranger  to  both  of  the  ladies,  started  from  Denver  for  the  South  Park  with  a  gentleman 
named  Newlin  to  inspect  a  mine,  and  was  returned  to  Denver  by  the  llth.  While  in  the 
park  Mr.  Newlin  gave  him  a  tiny  vial  of  gold-dust  he  had  washed  out  of  a  grassy  bar  on 
the  platte  at  Fairplay,  which  lies  under  the  eye  from  Mount  Lincoln.  Note  that  this 
was  the  "  last  week  "  of  Miss  Wade's  dream. 

In  August  the  Speaker  and  his  party  were  in  the  park,  and  on  the  top  of  Mount 
Lincoln,  and  there  he  and  Miss  Wade  plighted  their  troth.  The  gold-dust  the  miner 
gave  him— out  of  which  Mrs.  Colfax's  wedding  ring  was  made— was  rocked  out  of  the 
same  grassy  bar  on  the  platte  at  Fairplay,  under  Mount  Lincoln,  and  the  miner  was  Mr. 
Newlin. 

But  Miss  Matthews  had  already  secured  her  ring.  When  the  party  left  Denver  for 
the  park  the  author  accompanied  them  the  first  day  out.  On  that  day  he  and  Miss  Mat- 
thews became  engaged,  and  with  no  knowledge  of  Miss  Wade's  dream,  or  of  where  her 
wedding  ring  was  to  come  from,  he  had  Mrs.  Hollister's  wedding  ring  made  of  the 
Fairplay  gold-dust  given  him  by  Newlin.  So  the  two  ladies  found  their  rings  on  the 
same  grass-plat  under  the  high  old  mill,  in  accordance  with  the  dream. 

Miss  Matthews  had  been  a  member  of  the  Speaker's  family  for  several  years.  When, 
a  few  months  later,  she  was  married,  the  Speaker  gave  her  five  thousand  dollars,  say. 
ing  it  was  one  tenth  of  what  he  was  worth.  A  third  wedding  came  of  the  trip— that 
of  Miss  Sue  Matthews  and  Mr.  Frank  Hall,  of  Denver,  then  Secretary  of  Colorado  Ter- 
ritory. 


328  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

people.  He  was  met  at  the  depot  and  escorted  to  the  stand 
by  a  procession  numbering  thousands — largely  "  Fighting 
Boys  in  Blue"  in  their  gay  uniforms — which  kept  up  a 
steady  round  of  cheering.  Nearly  every  building  in  the 
town  was  decorated,  the  ladies  waved  handkerchiefs  from 
the  windows,  and  the  bands  played  national  airs.  It  was 
a  gala  day,  and  there  were  many  such  this  fall.  The  pop- 
ular candidate  for  the  Vice-Presidency  was  serenaded 
wherever  he  went,  called  on  for  speeches  at  places  of 
amusement,  called  out  of  the  cars  at  stations  on  the  rail- 
roads. To  him  the  canvass,  and  all  his  movements  after 
his  nomination,  were  made  one  continuous  ovation.  But 
also,  everywhere,  the  giants  of  discussion  and  debate  were 
in  the  field,  and  the  people  seemed  to  have  abandoned  all 
else  to  listen  to  them.  Withal  the  Republicans  barely  car- 
ried Indiana  on  the  8th,  losing  several  Congressmen  in  this 
and  the  other  October  States.  The  speaking  and  the  out- 
pouring of  the  people  to  hear  it  went  on  growing  in  vol- 
ume. The  gathering  of  the  i2th  at  South  Bend  was  the 
largest  ever  seen  in  Northern  Indiana.  Every  species  of 
demonstration  known  to  popular  electioneering  was  made 
the  most  of.  Acres  upon  acres  of  people  assembled  in 
town  after  town  all  over  Indiana,  Ohio,  and,  indeed,  all 
the  States,  to  listen  to  the  Speaker  and  many  capable  and 
distinguished  party  leaders.  Speaking  at  Detroit,  and 
going  thence  next  day  to  Niles,  Mich.,  Mr.  Colfax  was 
called  out  at  stations,  and  spoke  twenty-one  times. 

On  the  eve  of  the  election  he  spoke  at  New  Carlisle, 
where  seven  thousand  people  had  assembled.  This  must 
have  been  a  proud  moment  to  him.  Here  he  had  alighted 
from  an  emigrant  wagon  thirty-two  years  before,  depen- 
dent on  himself  for  his  place  in  the  world.  The  friends  he 
made  here  in  his  youth  must  also  have  been  proud.  He 
alluded,  says  the  reporter,  to  New  Carlisle  as  the  home  of 
his  young  days,  saying  he  retained  a  fondness  for  it  still, 
and  always  should  ;  and  then  for  two  hours  discussed  the 
issues  of  the  canvass,  evoking  almost  continuous  applause. 

The  night  of  election-day  South  Bend  Republicans 
held  a  watch  meeting  at  the  Court  House,  the  Speaker 


FORTIETH  CONGRESS.  329 

sending  them  bulletins  from  the  telegraph  office.  At 
eleven  o'clock  he  visited  the  meeting,  and  was  handed  over 
the  heads  of  the  crowd  to  the  stand,  where,  when  they 
wearied  of  cheering,  he  made  them  a  brief  stirring  speech, 
and  then  returned  to  his  post  in  the  telegraph  office,  the 
meeting  breaking  up  toward  morning. 

Next  evening  there  was  a  fine  display  of  fireworks,  bon- 
fires, procession,  music — every  demonstration  of  rejoicing. 
The  triumph  of  the  Republicans  was  overwhelming  :  they 
had  elected  two  thirds  of  Congress  and  of  the  Presidential 
Electors.  From  the  Speaker's  arrival  home,  three  months 
since,  South  Bend  had  been  in  a  state  of  mild  delirium. 
His  county  returned  824  majority  for  Grant  and  Colfax  ; 
his  district,  now  the  eleventh,  and  shorn  of  six  counties, 
2000  majority  for  General  Jasper  Packard,  his  successor. 
The  second  rebellion  was  over.  It  was,  in  truth,  in  many 
respects,  a  repetition  of  the  victory  which  culminated  at 
Appomattox. 

Congress  met  November  loth,  and  in  five  minutes  ad- 
journed to  December  7th.  The  Speaker's  journey  to 
Washington  and  back  was  a  continuous  popular  ovation. 

On  the  1 8th  of  November  Schuyler  Colfax,  Speaker 
and  Vice-President-elect,  and  Miss  Ellen  W.,  "  eldest 
daughter  of  the  late  Theodore  M.  Wade,  were  married  at 
the  residence  of  the  bride's  mother  at  Andover,  O.  The 
ceremony  was  performed  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Beach."  The 
South  Bend  Register  heartily  felicitated  its  founder.  Mr. 
Colfax  wrote  his  fast  friend,  Mr.  Thomas  Underwood,  of 
Lafayette  :  "  Two  elections  in  one  month  !  Ought  1  not 
to  be  happy  ?  But  I  expect  more  real  happiness  from  the 
election  decided  by  one  than  from  the  election  decided  by 
millions." 

Immediately  after  the  wedding  the  bride  and  husband, 
with  relatives  and  friends,  started  for  Washington,  where 
Mrs.  Colfax  soon  became  a  general  favorite.  "  The  whole 
nation,"  said  Harper's  Bazar,  "join  in  congratulating 
him  on  his  marriage,  and  wishing  him  and  his  bride  a 
future  of  unbroken  felicity."  The  Speaker's  marriage 
seemed  to  double  and  redouble  the  attentions  of  his  old 


33O  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

friends.  A  series  of  banquets  and  receptions  was  given 
him  and  his  wife  in  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  other 
Eastern  cities,  extending  through  the  holidays,  and,  in- 
deed, the  entire  winter. 

At  a  banquet  given  him  by  the  Union  League  Club  of 
Philadelphia,  December  ipth,  the  Speaker  said  :  "  The  in- 
coming Administration  will  be  characterized  by  retrench- 
ment ;  by  honesty,  efficiency,  and  high  character  in  all 
persons  in  the  public  service  ;  by  a  close  guardianship  of 
the  Treasury  against  unwise  and  extravagant  schemes  ;  and 
by  a  fiscal  policy  which  will  maintain  our  credit  untarnished, 
appreciate  our  currency,  and  place  us  on  the  firm  rock  of 
specie  payments." 

On  Christmas  day  they  received  at  the  Armory-rooms 
in  Springfield,  Mass.,  "grasping  the  outstretched  hands 
of  five  thousand  people,"  said  the  reporter;  "always 
with  a  genial  smile  and  often  a  quick  pleasantry,  he  looked 
the  most  enviable  of  men,  especially  if  your  eye  rested 
on  the  lady  at  his  side.  Mrs.  Col  fax  has  a  face  of  fine 
intellectual  beauty,  and  a  distinguished  and  affable  grace 
as  winning  as  her  husband's,  and  as  ready  for  the  touch 
of  every  hand  ;  for  she  paid  the  full  penalty  of  wedding 
a  servant  of  the  people,  and  all  there  had  a  smile  and  a 
bow  from  both.  It  will  please  the  women  folk  to  know 
that  the  necklace  of  pearls  she  wore  was  her  husband's 
wedding  gift,  and  that  her  dark  hair  was  adorned  with  a 
coronal  of  pure  white  blossoms."  In  response  to  a  sere- 
nade, he  complimented  the  Armory  Club,  the  ladies,  the 
citizens,  and  his  host,  Sam  Bowles,  "  with  whom  I  have 
made  long  trips  over  the  plains,  through  the  mountains, 
chased  by  Indians  ;"  but  the  armorers  who,  during  the 
war,  armed  a  regiment  a  day  divided  his  heart,  even  with 
the  ladies. 

At  their  New  Year's  reception  all  the  Congressmen, 
irrespective  of  party,  and  nearly  all  the  town  called  to 
pay  their  respects  and  wish  them  well.  Valuable  presents 
were  received  from  New  York.  The  Speaker  seemed  at 
this  time  to  be  taken  into  the  families  of  the  whole  country 
as  a  member,  the  eldest  son,  as  he  had  long  before  been  in 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  331 

the  Ninth  District  of  Indiana.  A  rara-avis  in  politics,  he 
enjoyed  it  all  with  the  simplicity  of  a  child.  Heretofore 
his  mother  and  sister  had  comprised  the  ladies  of  his  house- 
hold. Now  these  ladies  gave  place  to  Mrs.  Colfax.  The 
Speaker's  receptions  had  long  been  a  feature  of  Washing- 
ton society.  They  were  never  more  agreeable,  more 
thronged  and  brilliant  than  this  winter.  Throughout  Mr. 
Johnson's  term  the  Speaker  had  held  a  sort  of  rival  court, 
his  levees  being  the  common  resort  of  the  friends  of  Con- 
gress. 

Said  the  Washington  correspondent  of  the  New  York 
Herald: 

"  At  Speaker  Colfax' s  popular  levees  the  tone  of  ceremony  is  let 
down,  and  hearty  hospitality  mingles  with  unconstrained  ease.  Here  all 
shades  of  politics  blend  in  rainbow  harmony  of  color,  and  general  genial- 
ity dissipates  all  stiffness  and  constraint.  Mrs.  Colfax  receives  with 
much  grace  and  good-nature.  There  is  nothing  artificial  in  her  manner, 
and  if  there  is  any  restraint  it  arises  from  a  disposition  to  check  an  ex- 
uberance of  kindly  feeling.  She  was  dressed  in  pink  satin,  wore  white 
flowers  in  her  hair,  and  a  chaste  necklace  of  pearls.  A  little  way  from 
her  stood  Mrs.  and  Miss  Matthews  and  their  cousin,  Miss  Runk,  all 
three  attired  in  colors  that  made  a  pretty  and  effective  contrast.  The 
visitors  were  from  everywhere,  and  all  appeared  familiar  acquaintances, 
whom  the  Speaker  was  never  so  glad  to  see.  Wonderful  man  is  Colfax  ; 
through  clouds  and  sunshine  always  the  same  cordial,  smiling,  whole- 
souled  fellow.  A  pleasant  word  and  look  for  everybody,  never  losing 
his  equanimity,  steady  in  his  orbit  as  the  sun,  and,  like  the  solar  luminary, 
sending  forth  beams  that  warm  and  cheer  the  social  sphere  around  him. 
Every  one  goes  away  in  a  happier  mood  than  he  came." 

A  stormy  occurrence  signalized  the  last  days  of  Speaker 
Colfax  in  the  House.  The  day  was  approaching  when, 
under  the  Constitution,  the  electoral  votes  must  be  counted 
in  the  presence  of  the  two  Houses  of  Congress.  There 
was  question  as  to  Georgia's  right  to  representation,  and 
on  the  8th  day  of  February  the  twenty-second  joint  rule, 
which  provides  that  disputed  electoral  votes  shall  not  be 
counted  "  except  by  the  concurrent  vote  of  the  two 
Houses,"  was  modified  by  a  concurrent  resolution,  settling 
in  advance  the  disposition  of  Georgia's  votes,  by  permit- 
ting the  summary  to  be  made  both  with  and  without  them, 
but  announcing  that,  in  either  event,  Grant  and  Colfax 


332  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

were  elected  ;  a  form  adopted  by  Mr.  Clay  in  1821,  with 
reference  to  the  electoral  votes  of  Missouri,  and  followed 
in  1837  with  respect  to  the  electoral  votes  of  Michigan. 

The  two  Houses  met  in  joint  session  in  the  spacious 
Representatives'  Hall  February  loth,  a  splendid  and  crowd- 
ed audience  of  spectators  in  attendance,  to  perform  this 
duty.  Mr.  Wade,  President  of  the  Senate,  occupied  the 
Speaker's  Chair  as  presiding  officer.  Mr.  Speaker  Colfax 
sat  at  his  left.  When  the  State  of  Georgia,  was  reached 
— purposely  left  to  the  last — General  Butler,  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, objected  to  the  counting  of  her  votes  for  vari- 
ous reasons.  Under  the  concurrent  resolution  the  objec- 
tion should  not  have  been  entertained  by  the  presiding 
officer,  but  it  was,  and  the  Senate  retired,  the  House  vot- 
ing by  itself  to  sustain  Butler's  objection.  On  the  return 
of  the  Senate,  Mr.  Wade  announced  that  under  the  con- 
current resolution,  the  Senate  had  overruled  Butler's  ob- 
jection, and  the  result  of  the  count  would  be  accordingly 
stated  by  the  tellers. 

Mr.  Butler  called  attention  to  the  action  of  the  House, 
and  proposed  to  submit  a  resolution.  The  Chair  declined 
to  receive  it.  Butler  appealed  from  the  decision  of  the 
Chair.  The  Chair  declined  to  entertain  the  appeal.  A 
scene  of  tumult  ensued,  "of  which  the  official  report,"  said 
Colfax  afterward,  "  gives  but  a  faint  idea."  President 
Wade  ruled  steadily  that  nothing  was  in  order  but  the 
statement  of  the  vote  under  the  concurrent  resolution,  and 
finally  said:  "The  tellers  will  now  declare  the  result." 
Senator  Conkling,  one  of  the  tellers,  thereupon  "  pro- 
ceeded to  declare  the  result  amid  great  noise  and  dis- 
order, the  President  endeavoring  to  maintain  order  by  re- 
peated raps  of  the  gavel."  The  uproar  continuing,  the 
Speaker  said  :  "  The  Speaker  of  the  House  appeals  to 
members  of  the  House  to  preserve  order.  The  Sergeant- 
at-Arms  of  the  House  will  arrest  any  member  refusing  to 
obey  the  order  of  the  President  of  this  convention." 

At  that  moment  nearly  one  third  of  the  members  were 
on  their  feet,  some  of  them  gesticulating  violently,  and 
danger  of  collision  between  members  and  Senators  (the 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  333 

latter  had  been  denounced  as  "  interlopers")  was  immi- 
nent. "  It  was  language  like  this,"  said  General  Garfield  ; 
"  it  was  a  manner  and  bearing  of  unparalleled  insolence  ; 
it  was  the  fell  spirit  of  disorder— that  spirit  that  prefers  to 
reign  in  hell  rather  than  serve  in  heaven — that  would  bring 
chaos  into  this  sacred  hall,  where  order  and  calm  delibera- 
tion should  forever  dwell.  .  .  .  And  I  believe  that  not 
only  the  members  of  the  House  but  the  whole  country  will 
recognize  the  debt  of  obligation  they  owe  to  the  Speaker 
of  this  House,  who  threatened  to  use  the  constabulary  force 
at  his  command  to  preserve  order  in  this  hall."  Mr.  Wash- 
burne,  of  Illinois,  too  ill  to  be  in  his  place  in  the  House, 
wrote  the  Speaker  :  "  Every  man  who  loves  his  country 
must  blush  crimson  at  the  scene  of  yesterday.  I  thank  you 
for  the  stand  you  took  in  calling  the  House  back  to  a  sense 
of  its  position  and  conduct.  You  were  emphatically  right, 
and  the  country  will  applaud  you  for  your  conduct." 

As  soon  as  the  convention  had  adjourned  General 
Butler  offered,  as  a  question  of  privilege,  a  resolution  that 
"  the  counting  of  the  votes  of  Georgia,  by  order  of  the 
Vice-President /r<?  tern.,  was  a  gross  act  of  oppression  and 
an  invasion  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  House." 
Since  the  Speaker  had  sustained  to  the  full  extent  of  his 
power  the  action  of  the  Vice-President,  the  resolution  ar- 
raigned him  equally  with  that  officer.  He  called  Mr. 
Dawes,  of  Massachusetts,  to  the  Chair,  and  took  his  seat 
on  the  floor  during  the  three  days'  debate  that  followed. 
11  Order  had  to  be  preserved/'  he  said  in  the  course  of  the 
debate.  "  The  House  had  met  as  a  House  at  noon,  and 
had  not  adjourned.  It  was  a  House  of  Representatives, 
and  was  sitting,  as  the  Constitution  requires  its  presence, 
as  a  House.  The  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  House  was 
here,  as  required  by  the  rule.  It  is  his  duty  to  aid  in  the 
enforcement  of  order  under  the  direction  of  the  Speaker, 
and  of  no  one  else,  and  he  received  that  direction  from 
him.  And  the  Speaker  thus  appealed  to  the  House.  The 
President  of  the  Senate  uttered  the  very  words  you  by 
your  votes  commanded  him  to  utter.  The  votes  of  Georgia 
did  not  affect  the  result.  The  President  rose  and  declared 


334  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

exactly  what  both  branches  of  Congress  ordered  him  to 
declare.  I  appeal  to  you,  Representatives,  on  no  such 
sudden  excitement  as  this  to  put  upon  your  journal  a 
record  that  will  not  stand  the  test  and  scrutiny  of  the  peo- 
ple, nor  of  your  own  private  judgments  in  the  cooler  period 
hereafter." 

After  Butler  had  toned  his  resolution  down  to  a  ref- 
erence of  the  subject  to  a  select  committee,  with  leave  to 
report  at  any  time,  on  motion  of  General  Logan  the  mat- 
ter was  laid  on  the  table  by  a  vote  of  130  to  55.  "  Speaker 
Colfax  has  distinguished  himself  greatly  by  the  superb 
calmness,  firmness,  dignity,  and  force  with  which  he  has 
discharged  his  duties  and  met  the  assaults  of  the  passion- 
ate and  combative  Butler,"  said  the  Hartford  Courant. 

On  the  3d  of  March  Mr.  Colfax  resigned  the  Speaker- 
ship,  Theodore  M.  Pomeroy,  of  New  York,  succeeding  him 
for  the  remainder  of  the  session.  On  the  same  day,  the 
joint  resolution  proposing  to  the  States  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  the  crowning  measure  of 
reconstruction,  was'  adopted  by  the  House.  On  the  151)1 
of  March,  1870,  the  Secretary  of  State  proclaimed  its  rati- 
fication by  three  fourths  of  the  States.  The  Forty-first 
Congress  convening  March  4th,  James  G.  Blaine,  of  Maine, 
was  elected  Speaker,  Mr.  Dawes  and  other  candidates 
withdrawing.  "  Mr.  Blaine  attracted  notice  as  Chairman 
of  the  Republican  Executive  Committee  of  his  State  during 
the  last  canvass,"  said  the  South  Bend  Register.  "  He 
proved  the  possession  in  a  great  degree  of  those  qualities 
for  which  Mr.  Colfax  is  so  distinguished — energy,  clear- 
ness, force,  concentration,  and  ability  to  direct." 

In  this,  his  final  valedictory  to  the  House,  Mr.  Colfax 
said  : 

"  The  fourteen  years  during  which  I  have  been  associated  with  the 
Representatives  of  the  people  here  have  been  full  of  eventful  legislation, 
of  exciting  issues,  and  of  grave  discussions  vitally  affecting  the  entire 
Republic.  All  these,  with  the  accompanying  scenes,  which  so  often  re- 
produced in  this  arena  of  debate  the  warmth  of  feeling  of  our  antagoniz- 
ing constituencies,  have  passed  into  the  domain  of  history  ;  and  I  but 
refer  to  them  to  express  the  joy — which  apparently  is  shared  by  the  mass 
of  our  countrymen — that  the  storm-cloud  of  war  which  so  long  darkened 


FORTIETH   CONGRESS.  335 

our  national  horizon  at  last  passed  away,  leaving  our  imperilled  Union 
saved  ;  and  that  by  the  decree  of  the  people,  more  powerful  than  Presi- 
dents, or  Congresses,  or  armies,  liberty  was  proclaimed  throughout  the 
land  to  all  the  inhabitants  thereof." 

He  referred  to  the  proud  position  of  the  Republic 
among  the  leading  nations  of  the  earth,  glanced  at  its 
illimitable  resources,  and  at  the  inevitable  influence  abroad 
of  the  vast  enlargement  of  liberty  at  home.  "  May  we  not 
hope  that  by  the  moral  force  of  our  example  fetters  may 
everywhere  be  broken,  from  the  rivers  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth  ?"  Alluding  to  his  steady  efforts  to  administer  his 
high  office  with  sole  reference  to  the  public  weal,  "  I  may 
be  pardoned,"  he  said,  "  for  the  expression  of  gratification 
that  while  no  decision  of  mine  has  been  reversed,  no  ap- 
peal has  been  taken  and  decided  by  a  strictly  party  vote. 
If  in  the  quickness  with  which  a  presiding  officer  is  often 
compelled  to  rule,  hour  after  hour,  on  parliamentary 
points,  and  in  the  performance  of  his  duty  to  protect  all 
members  in  their  rights,  to  advance  the  progress  of  public 
business,  and  to  preserve  order,  any  word  has  fallen  from 
my  lips  which  has  justly  wounded  any  one,  I  desire  to 
withdraw  it,  unreservedly." 

"  I  leave  this  hall  with  no  feeling  of  unkindness  to  any  member  with 
whom  I  have  been  associated  in  all  the  years  of  the  past,  having  earnestly 
tried  to  practise  that  lesson,  of  life  which  commands  us  to  write  our  enmi- 
ties on  the  sand,  but  to  engrave  our  friendships  on  the  granite.  But  the 
last  word  cannot  longer  be  delayed.  I  bid  farewell  to  the  faithful  and 
confiding  constituency  whose  affectionate  regard  has  sustained  and  en- 
compassed me  through  all  the  years  of  my  public  life.  Farewell  to  this 
hall,  which  in  its  excitement  and  restless  activities  so  often  seemed  to 
represent  the  th robbings  and  the  intense  feelings  of  the  national  heart  ! 
And  finally,  fellow-members  and  friends,  with  sincere  gratitude  for  the 
generous  support  you  have  always  given  me  in  the  difficult  and  often 
complex  duties  of  this  Chair,  and  with  the  warmest  wishes  for  your  health, 
happiness,  and  prosperity,  one  and  all,  I  bid  you  farewell."  l 

After  his  retirement  from  the  Chair  the  House  unani- 
mously adopted  the  following  resolution  : 

1.  Subsequently  the  employes  of  the  House  of  Representatives  clubbed  together,  and 
bought  the  chair  in  which  he  had  so  long  presided,  and  presented  it  to  him.  It  occupies 
a  bay-window  in  the  library  of  his  house,  which  is  the  especial  "  den  "  of  the  present 
Schuyler  Coif  ax. 


SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

"  That  the  retirement  of  the  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax  from  the  Speaker's 
Chair,  after  a  long  and  faithful  discharge  of  his  duties,  is  an  event  in  our 
current  history  which  would  cause  general  regret,  were  it  not  that  the 
country  is  to  have  the  benefit  of  his  matured  talents  and  experience  in 
the  higher  sphere  of  duty  to  which  he  has  been  called  by  a  majority  of 
his  countrymen.  In  parting  from  our  distinguished  Speaker,  the  House 
records  with  becoming  sensibility  its  high  appreciation  of  his  skill  in  par- 
liamentary law  ;  of  his  promptness  in  administering  and  facilitating  the 
business  of  this  body  ;  of  his  urbane  manners  ;  and  of  the  dignity  and 
impartiality  with  which  he  has  presided  over  the  deliberations  of  the 
House.  He  will  carry  with  him  into  his  new  field  of  duty  and  throughout 
life  the  kind  regards  of  every  member  of  this  Congress." 

Mr.  Johnson  retired  from  the  Presidency  at  the  same 
time,  pardoning  the  last  of  the  assassins  who  had  made 
him  President.  Said  a  wit  of  the  times  :  "  He  owes  a  good 
deal,  he  has  nothing,  the  rest  he  bequeaths  to  the  poor." 
His  political  estate  was  entirely  dissipated.  Since  the  re- 
turn of  the  Speaker  from  the  Pacific,  certainly  until  the 
course  of  Johnson  made  Grant's  election  to  the  Presidency 
inevitable,  Colfax,  from  his  character  and  position,  had, 
perhaps,  been  the  most  influential  of  the  President's  op- 
ponents, and  history  must  record  that  the  President  was 
beaten  at  every  turn,  and  that  he  deserved  to  be  beaten, 
because  he  was  on  the  wrong  tack.  Events  had  now  given 
Grant  the  Republican  leadership,  and  Colfax  accepted  sec- 
ond place  with  a  loyalty  that  never  wavered,  and  that 
postponed  the  capture  of  the  White  House  by  the  Democ- 
racy for  twelve  years — from  1872  to  1884. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

FORTY-FIRST   CONGRESS. 

1869-1871. 

DECLINES  TO  BE  GENERAL  SOLICITOR  FOR  OFFICE,  ALIENATIONS. — 
VISITING,  EAST  AND  WEST,  A  SECOND  PACIFIC  TOUR,  SPEECH  AT 
SALT  LAKE  CITY. — AN  OLD  FRIEND  IN  TROUBLE. — "  THE  ADVOCATE 
OF  ALL  GOOD  CAUSES." — ALL  MEN  His  READERS. — CANVASSES  INDI- 
ANA.— His  RETIREMENT  ANNOUNCED. — RESPONSE. — CHRISTMAS-TIDE. 
— ATTACK  OF  VERTIGO  IN  THE  SENATE,  SOLICITUDE  OF  THE  COUN- 
TRY.— A  BREATH  OF  PRAIRIE  AND  PINE  FOREST. — ASKED  TO  RE- 
SIGN THE  VICE-PRESIDENCY  AND  BECOME  SECRETARY  OF  STATE. — 
His  MOST  INTIMATE  FRIENDS  DRIFTING  INTO  OPPOSITION  TO 
GRANT. — GREELEY'S  AND  BOWLES'S  CANDIDATE. — AN  EMBARRASSING 
POSITION  FOR  A  LESS  LOYAL  MAN. — GUARDING  AGAINST  MISUNDER- 
STANDING WITH  THE  PRESIDENT. 

ON  taking  the  Chair  of  the  Senate  as  Vice-President, 
Mr.  Colfax  said  that  he  realized  the  delicacy  as  well  as  the 
responsibilities  of  the  position.  Most  of  the  Senators  were 
his  seniors  in  age  ;  he  had  not  been  chosen  their  presiding 
officer  by  them  ;  he  should  need  their  assistance  and  for- 
bearance. "  Pledging  to  you  all  a  faithful  and  inflexible 
impartiality  in  the  administration  of  your  rules,  and  ear- 
nestly desiring  to  co-operate  with  you  in  making  the  delib- 
erations of  the  Senate  worthy  of  its  historical  renown,  I 
am  ready  to  take  the  oath  of  office." 

There  was  great  pressure  on  him  for  recommendations 
to  office,  applicants  supposing  his  power  over  patronage 
increased,  whereas  it  was  diminished.  Under  the  usage  he 
had  always  had  the  disposal,  or,  at  least,  great  influence 
in  the  disposal,  of  the  offices  in  his  district.  Now  he  had 
no  district,  or  rather,  his  district  was  the  whole  country, 
and  the  power  of  appointment  to  office  was  vested  not  in 


338  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

the  Vice-President,  but  in  the  President.  He  was  willing 
to  join  with  members  or  Senators  in  recommending  unob- 
jectionable applicants  for  places,  but  he  declined  to  be- 
come a  general  solicitor  for  office,  and  this  was  the  un- 
happy cause  of  misunderstanding  and  alienations.  Writ- 
ing to  his  friend,  Mr.  Wetherbee,  of  San  Francisco,  he 
says  :  "  I  believe  with  Mr.  Jefferson,  when  he  was  Vice- 
President,  that  intermeddling  by  a  Vice-President  with  a 
President's  patronage  is  officious  and  unwise  ;  and  I  have 
kept  out  of  all  the  imbroglios  as  to  office  everywhere,  as  a 
matter  of  principle  and  propriety.  If  it  has  alienated 
friends,  I  regret  it  very  much,  but  cannot  help  it.'* 

One  alienation  was  much  talked  of,  and  merits  notice. 
The  Senate  caucus  had  nominated  a  new  Public  Printer 
vice  John  D.  Defrees.  "  It  was  a  combination  of  Southern 
Republican  Senators,"  Colfax  wrote  his  mother,  "  who 
were  after  the  offices  of  Sergeant-at-Arms  and  Executive 
Clerk,  and  got  them,  Fenton — whose  friend  was  nomi- 
nated over  Defrees — and  Morton,  who  wanted  to  pay  off 
Defrees  for  going  to  Indianapolis,  as  he  had  against  my 
protest,  to  work  against  Morton's  election."  The  life-long 
friendship  of  the  two  men  was  well  known,  and  the  move- 
ment to  oust  Defrees  was  kept  from  Colfax's  knowledge. 
When  he  heard  of  it,  he  said  to  his  Secretary,  Will  Todd  : 
"  I  could  not  have  felt  it  more  keenly  had  it  been  aimed  at 
myself,  and  had  I  known  of  it,  I  would  have  done  all  I 
could  to  prevent  it."  He  asked  Mr.  Todd  to  say  this  to 
Defrees,  if  he  met  him  during  the  day,  he  himself  having 
to  go  to  his  place  in  the  Senate.  It  chanced  that  for  that 
evening  a  number  of  Congressmen  were  under  engage- 
ment to  dine  with  him  at  his  house.  The  next  evening, 
after  dinner,  the  first  hour  at  his  command,  he  set  out  to 
call  upon  and  sympathize  with  his  old  friend.  He  was 
met  by  a  messenger  from  Mrs.  Defrees,  returning  to  him 
some  presents  he  had  given  the  family,  a  telegram  of 
thanks  he  had  sent  to  Mr.  Defrees  at  Chicago  in  1868,  and 
a  card  bearing  on  one  side  "  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Defrees,"  and 
on  the  other  a  message  implying  that  he  was  an  unfaithful 
friend.  "No  explanation  had  been  sought  or  awaited,  and 


FORTY-FIRST   CONGRESS.  339 

the  incident  in  all  its  details  had  been  telegraphed  all  over 
the  country. 

In  a  card  published  by  Mr.  Defrees,1  he  says  that  the 
next  day  Mr.  Colfax  was  informed  by  a  mutual  friend  on 
his  (Defrees's)  authority  that  he  was  not  blamed  for  not  pre- 
venting the  action  of  the  Senate  caucus,  "  but  because  he 
had  not  shown  any  interest  in  the  result  after  it  had  taken 
place,  and  that  the  card  and  presents  had  been  sent  to  him 
by  Mrs.  Defrees  of  her  own  accord,  without  my  approval, 
and  much  to  my  regret.  To  this  explanation,  given  in  all 
kindness,  he  simply  remarked  that  as  my  name  was  on  the 
card  (the  '  Mr.'  had  not  been  erased  by  Mrs.  D.),  I  must 
be  responsible." 

Whoever  was  responsible,  the  result  was  that  Colfax 
was  held  out  to  the  world  as  an  ingrate  by  his  oldest  friend. 
He  felt  inexpressibly  wronged.  "  I  don't  want  to  see  De- 
frees  or  Mrs.  Defrees,"  he  wrote  his  mother,  "  or  hear  any 
explanation  of  this  unparalleled  insult.  I  have  no  malice 
in  me  about  this  or  anything  else,  shamefully  treated  as  I 
feel  that  I  have  been,  but  I  do  not  intend  to  ever  allow  him 
to  converse  with  me  about  it."  Mr.  Defrees  professed  an 
equal  disinclination  to  a  reconciliation. 

But  when,  in  after  years,  a  great  trial  fell  upon  Mr.  Col- 
fax,  Mr.  Defrees  wrote  about  him  in  such  terms  "  that  I 
was  glad,"  says  Colfax,  "  the  first  time  I  met  him,  to 
tender  him  my  thanks  ;  and,  shaking  hands  together,  the 
unpleasant  alienation  of  the  past  four  years  ended,  and,  I 
trust,  forever." 

Congress,  having  modified  the  Tenure-of-Office  Act  at 
President  Grant's  request,  and  passed  a  new  reconstruction 
act  for  the  three  still  recalcitrant  States,  adjourned  in 
April.  The  Vice-President  and  his  wife  spent  the  summer 
visiting  :  first  in  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Iowa  ;  then  in  the 
East,  "to  show  Mrs.  Colfax  New  England  in  June;" 
finally,  on  the  Pacific  Slope,  with  nearly  the  same  party  as 
in  1865.  His  wife  accompanied  him  ;  ex-Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Bross  was  accompanied  by  his  daughter  Jessie  ;  and 
Mrs.  Calhoun  (now  Runkle),  then  on  the  staff  of  the  New 

1.  In  the  S&utJi  Bend  Tribune  of  April  13th,  1872. 


340  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

York  Tribune,  took  Mr.  Richardson's  place.  Mrs.  Colfax's 
sister  Marcia  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sam  Bowles  were  of  the 
party.  Mrs.  Calhoun  was  invited  on  the  request  of  Miss 
Jessie  Bross. 

Chicago  celebrated  the  completion  of  the  first  Pacific 
railroad  on  the  loth  of  May,  the  day  the  last  spike  was 
driven.  Having  all  his  life  taken  a  keen  interest  in  the 
growth  and  development  of  the  West,  and  particularly  in 
the  construction  of  an  overland  railroad,  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent  was  naturally  called  on  for  the  principal  glorification 
speech  at  the  evening  meeting  on  that  occasion.  He  dwelt 
with  fervor  on  the  magnificence  of  the  work  and  on  the 
unique  and  commanding  position  it  gave  this  country, 
fronting  on  the  two  main  oceans,  half  way  between  the  old 
continents.  The  successful  close  of  the  war  and  the  con- 
struction of  this  road,  he  said,  opened  a  new  chapter  in 
national  progress  and  power.  We  were  no  longer  "  a 
giant  without  bones,"  as  Talleyrand  once  called  us. 
America  had  now  its  spinal  railroad,  its  ribs  of  iron,  its 
nerves  of  electric  wires.  It  would  number  its  hundred 
millions  of  prosperous  happy  people  by  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury ;  and  beyond  that  its  greatness  and  grandeur,  if  only 
wisdom  ruled  in  its  counsels,  would  be  "  what  my  poor 
tongue  might  in  vain  attempt  to  portray  on  this  joyful 
night." 

Passing  through  Lafayette,  Ind.,  where  he  was  com- 
pelled to  hold  a  popular  levee,  he  arrived  May  2oth  at  the 
capital  of  Illinois  on  a  visit  to  his  friend,  C.  H.  Smith, 
the  Springfield  Journal  greeting  him  as  follows  :  "  He  can 
truly  say  that  he  never  planted  a  thorn  in  any  human  heart. 
Yet  is  he  a  man  of  great  positiveness  and  energy  of  con- 
viction. The  people  have  seen  him  these  many  years  in 
the  strong  light  that  beats  upon  a  politician,  and  they 
have  never  discovered  in  his  conduct  the  first  speck  of 
meanness  or  corruption,  nor  the  least  employment  of  his 
great  influence  for  his  personal  advantage.  It  was  this 
that  nominated  him  at  Chicago,  the  popular  will  tearing 
like  cobwebs  the  artfully  constructed  rings  of  the  party 
managers." 


FORTY-FIRST  CONGRESS.  341 

His  visit  to  Springfield  was  the  occasion  of  a  public 
and  private  entertainment,  which  was  participated  in  by 
the  State  officers  and  by  eminent  gentlemen,  the  Spring- 
field Zouaves,  the  Emmett  Guards,  and  the  people  at  large. 
Such  ovations  were  for  years  an  every-day  occurrence 
wherever  he  went. 

In  the  latter  part  of  June  a  correspondent  of  the  New 
York  Sun  wrote  from  Hartford,  Conn.  :  "  Mr.  Colfax's 
progress  from  Strafford,  Vt.,  was  one  continued  ovation. 
Notwithstanding  the  private  and  quiet  character  of  his 
visit  to  New  England — in  spite,  indeed,  of  his  oft-ex- 
pressed wish  that  no  public  announcement  of  his  move- 
ments should  be  made,  such  is  the  universal  popularity  of 
the  ex-Speaker  and  prospective  President,  that  even  the 
rural  districts  have  kept  themselves  informed  of  his  where- 
abouts, and  at  every  considerable  station  along  the  route 
of  his  journey  yesterday,  crowds  of  eager  citizens  assem- 
bled to  call  him  out  and  cheer  him  and  take  him  by  the 
hand." 

He  visited  most  of  his  old  Washington  colleagues  living 
in  New  England  and  the  adjoining  States,  and  was  the 
recipient  of  every  pleasant  attention  and  of  every  honor- 
able distinction.1  The  papers  of  twenty  New  England 
towns  were  full  of  accounts  of  the  graceful  doings  and  say- 
ings of  the  Vice-President  and  his  royal  hosts.  The  lead- 
ing Democratic  paper  of  Rhode  Island,  the  Providence 
Herald,  said  : 

"  In  his  remarks  at  the  City  Hall  he  wounded  no  sensibilities,  pro- 
voked no  criticism,  and  yet  showed  a  full  appreciation  of  and  capability 
to  discharge  personal  and  political  obligations.  His  allusion  to  Senator 
Anthony  was  exceedingly  happy,  both  in  conception  and  expression. 
Passing  to  general  topics,  he  gave  his  hearers  a  sensible  and  manly 
speech,  completely  denuded  of  Buncombe.  If  Mr.  Colfax  strained  a 
point  at  all  it  was  in  praise  of  the  President.  And  while,  as  a  politician, 
we  might  be  compelled  to  qualify  some  of  his  eulogiums  upon  Grant,  as 
a  man  we  give  him  credit  for  speaking  in  praise  of  his  official  chief.  As 

1.  At  Senator  Merrill's  home  the  Vice-President  had  a  reception.  The  Senator  said 
to  the  crowd  :  "  When  I  built  my  house  I  intended  it  to  he  large  enough  to  contain  all 
my  friends.  Friends,  come  in  !"  and  they  cheered.  After  which  said  Senator  Morrill, 
in  his  long-drawn  style  :  "But  I  never  expected  to  build  a  house  large  enough  to  hold 
the  friends  of  Schuyler  Colfax ;"  and  then  they  cheered  again  and  again. 


342  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

a  pleasant,  social,  intelligent  gentleman,  he  has  undoubtedly  won  the 
regard  of  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact." 

This  was  really  part  of  "  their  wedding  journey,"  which 
continued  off  and  on  for  a  year  or  so. 

August  and  September  were  given  up  to  the  Pacific 
tour.  Three  days  now  sufficed  for  what  in  1865  had  re- 
quired three  weeks.  The  trip  was  no  longer  difficult  or 
dangerous,  and  its  novelty  was  fast  wearing  off.  The  ma- 
jority of  his  party  were  ladies,  and  the  chief  object  was  to 
enjoy  again  the  glories  of  the  Sierras,  of  Shasta  and  Hood, 
of  the  Geysers,  the  Big  Trees,  the  Yosemite,  the  Golden 
Gate,  of  Napa  and  San  Jose  valleys,  of  San  Francisco  Bay 
and  city,  and  to  renew  and  extend  the  friendships  of  the 
former  visit. 

"  He  escaped  nowhere  some  measure  of  the  honor  due 
his  high  public  position,"  said  the  San  Francisco  Bulletin, 
"  and  the  affectionate  attention  that  his  personal  character 
has  won  from  the  whole  country  wherever  he  appears." 
Additional  incentives  to  courtesy,  continued  that  paper, 
were  the  benefits  felt  by  the  far  West  to  have  resulted 
from  his  original  Pacific  journey,  calling  attention,  as  it  did, 
to  the  resources  and  attractions  of  this  coast,  and  indi- 
rectly if  not  directly  hastening  the  construction  of  the  over- 
land railroad.  "  This  feeling  was  universally  and  most 
flatteringly  manifested  during  this  summer's  tour  of  the 
Vice-President  and  his  friends." 

Serenaded  at  Salt  Lake  City,  the  Vice-President  ex- 
pressed in  plain  language  the  American  people's  condem- 
nation of  the  practice  of  polygamy,  and  of  the  generally 
exclusive  non-American  policy  of  the  Mormon  leaders,  en- 
deavoring to  show  them  that  in  these  respects  they  were 
standing  in  their  own  light,  doing  themselves  a  mischief. 
The  meeting  was  disturbed  by  Port  Rockwell,  a  Mormon 
ruffian  in  liquor,  who  shouted  occasionally  :  "I  never 
killed  any  one  who  didn't  need  killing."  It  was  time  that 
some  prominent  man  should  speak  plainly  for  national  in- 
stitutions and  authority  in  the  Mormon  capital.  The 
Vice-President  saw  this,  and  opportunity  serving,  he  did 
so.  It  was  his  way,  and,  of  course,  it  was  a  hit,  the  speech 


FORTY-FIRST   CONGRESS.  343 

being  almost  universally  published  and  commended.  With 
men  moved  by  ordinary  considerations  it  would  have  had 
a  great  effect.  It  merely  roused  additional  and  personal 
opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Mormons.  But  the  country  is 
slowly  advancing  to  the  standpoint  of  the  Vice-President 
in  1869,  or,  rather,  in  his  first  Congress,  1856-57. 

After  the  return  home  of  the  party,  Mr.  Bowles  pub- 
lished a  new  edition  of  his  "  Across  the  Continent,"  en- 
titling the  book  "Our  New  West,"  and  dedicating  it  to 
"  Schuyler  Colfax,  Speaker  of  Congress  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  trusted  and  beloved  above  all 
other  public  men  by  the  American  people."  In  the  book 
Mr.  Bowles  says  : 

"  He  is  more  than  the  Henry  Clay  of  this  generation  ;  for  the  love 
and  respect  borne  toward  him  are  not  confined  to  his  political  party,  as 
that  of  Mr.  Clay  practically  was.  A  member  of  Congress  now  for  four- 
teen years,  the  Speaker  of  its  House  for  six,  and  elevated  from  that,  the 
third,  to  the  second  political  station  in  our  Government — the  Vice- Presi- 
dency— he  stands  before  the  country  one  of  its  freshest  yet  one  of  its 
ripest,  one  of  its  most  useful,  and  certainly  one  of  the  most  promising 
and  popular  of  its  public  men.  He  has  more  personal  friends— people 
who,  whether  they  have  ever  seen  him  or  not,  feel  a  personal  attachment 
to  and  interest  in  him — than  any  other  public  man  in  the  country." 

On  the  22d  of  November  a  fair  was  opened  in  Baltimore, 
to  aid  in  the  establishment  of  an  Inebriate  Asylum. 
Pressed  to  make  an  address  on  the  occasion,  the  Vice- 
President  said  in  substance  : 

"  We  are  our  brother's  keeper  ;  all  our  laws  and  institutions  bear  wit- 
ness to  it.  Our  religion  inculcates  it  ;  it  is  so  in  the  nature  of  things. 
Springing  from  a  common  Creator,  we  are  all  brethren.  If  God  has 
blessed  you  with  a  strength  of  will  which  has  enabled  you  to  sanctify 
yourselves,  it  is  for  you  to  lift  up  and  guard  your  weaker  brother  to  save 
him,  if  possible,  from  a  living  death.  There  is  but  one  safe  way — to 
touch  not,  taste  not,  handle  not.  When  in  my  young  days  I  saw  a  com- 
panion die  in  the  delirium  of  drink,  calling  on  God  to  damn  his  soul,  I 
resolved  to  turn  my  back  on  it  forever,  and  I  did.  It  is  the  true  course, 
either  in  private  or  public  life." 

On  the  death  of  Grand  Master  Adams,  of  Indiana,  he 
writes  :  "  He  has  illustrated  the  teachings  of  Odd  Fellow- 
ship in  every  work  of  humanity  and  benevolence,  in  every 


344  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

inculcation  of  friendship,  love,  and  truth  ;  in  stern  rebuke 
of  all  selfishness  and  immorality,  with  a  faith  that  never 
wavered,  with  a  hope  that  looked  beyond  the  veil,  with  a 
charity  worthy  of  the  teachings  of  our  altars,  he  was 
zealous  and  untiring."  A  year  previous  Mr.  Adams  had 
requested  the  Vice-President  to  stand  up  in  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  Indiana  and  receive  the  cane  (from  the  home- 
stead of  Henry  Clay)  which  he  had  so  long  used,  saying  to 
him  :  "  My  heart  prompted  me  to  bestow  it  on  you,  be- 
cause I  feel  that  I  shall  have  need  of  it  but  a  little  longer." 
Late  in  1869  Mr.  Albert  D.  Richardson,  his  travelling 
companion  to  the  Pacific  in  1865,  and  long  an  intimate 
friend,  was  assassinated  by  Daniel  McFarland,  on  the  sus- 
picion of  improper  intimacy  with  the  assassin's  former 
wife,  now  divorced  and  about  to  be  married  to  Richard- 
son. Richardson  and  the  lady  were  united  in  marriage  by 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Richardson  being  on  his  death-bed. 
When  Colfax  heard  that  his  old  friend  had  been  shot,  he 
sent  him  a  telegram  of  condolence,  and  somehow  it  got  into 
print.  Thereupon  a  terrible  outcry  was  raised  by  a  part 
of  the  press,  particularly  of  New  York  City,  against  all  the 
friends  of  Richardson,  "  as  accomplices  in  vice  and  enemies 
of  public  morals."  The  Vice-President  wrote  Sinclair  : 

"  I  have  anonymous  letters  and  hostile  newspaper  slips  sent  me  every 
day,  but  shall  bear  it  all  in  patience  and  silence.  To  sympathize  with  a 
friend  of  years  when  shot  down  and  dying  seems  to  be  a  great  crime  in 
the  eyes  of  many  ;  but  if  he  had  been  '  sick  and  in  prison,'  I  would  have 
followed  him  there  with  earnest  sympathy,  confident  that  One  above 
would  not  condemn  me.  I  suppose  if  I  had  turned  my  back  on  him  in 
his  hour  of  peril  and  death,  and  said,  '  I  never  knew  the  man,'  it  would 
have  been  all  right  in  the  eyes  of  these  critics  ;  but  my  conscience  and  my 
heart  would  have  condemned  me." 

At  Richardson's  funeral  Mr.  Beecher  said  that  men  and 
women  above  reproach  held  that  he  had  acted  in  the  main 
right.  For  himself  he  had  vowed  before  God,  when  the 
land  was  rent  with  war,  that  those  who  labored  to  preserve 
the  nation  should  be  his  brothers,  fall  on  them  what  might. 
"  A  strange  case — death  is  a  truce,  at  least  to  most  men 
it  culminates  in  a  perfect  array  of  battle  against  the 


FORTY-FIRST  CONGRESS.  345 

deceased.  It  is  a  shame,  but  it  is  so.  He  was  a  man 
who,  perhaps  mistaken  in  some  steps  and  details,  in  the 
main  made  no  mistake,  but  was  truly  a  good  man.  I  be- 
lieve he  was  a  man  whom  no  one  should  be  ashamed  to  call 
a  friend." 

The  storm  of  malignant  calumny  beat  upon  the  dead 
Richardson  and  all  who  sympathized  with  him  until  it  ex- 
hausted itself.  Whether  his  conduct  was  altogether  justi- 
fiable or  not,  those  who  had  known  and  loved  him  for 
years  would  have  been  dastards  had  they  abandoned  him 
when  calamity  and  death  overtook  him,  and  this  they  did 
not.  In  truth,  Albert  D.  Richardson  was  a  generous  and 
noble  man. 

Desiring  his  presence  on  the  Forty-sixth  Anniversary  of 
the  American  Sunday-school  Union,  which  was  to  be  cele- 
brated in  Philadelphia,  May  24th,  1870,  Mr.  George  H. 
Stuart,  of  that  city,  wrote  the  Vice-President  a  strong  ap- 
peal, ending  :  "  I  hope  and  pray  that  you  will  give  me  the 
privilege  of  saying  to  our  board  that  my  friend,  the  Hon. 
Schuyler  Colfax,  the  advocate  of  all  good  causes,  will  be 
with  us."  This  anniversary  was  a  notable  event.  The 
first  General  Assembly  of  the  re-united  Presbyterian 
.  Church  and  a  Baptist  gathering  of  the  first  order  were 
met  in  the  city  of  Brotherly  Love.  The  assemblage  filled 
the  Academy  of  Music,  floor  and  tier  on  tier  of  galleries  to 
overflowing.  Hundreds  of  the  leading  Presbyterian  and 
Baptist  divines  and  laymen  of  the  country  and  a  delega- 
tion of  distinguished  men  from  abroad  were  present  as 
guests. 

The  Vice-President  went  on  from  Washington,  and  was 
called  on  to  preside  over  the  meeting.  "  He  made  a  cap- 
ital address,"  said  the  Philadelphia  Inquirer,  "  bidding  all 
welcome,  and  rejoicing  in  the  occasion  which  had  called 
together  the  friends  of  the  noble  cause — Presbyterians, 
Baptists,  teachers,  superintendents,  well-wishers.  The 
President  had  intended  to  be  present,  but  finding  it 
impossible,  had  sent  by  the  speaker  a  message,  '  that 
for  several  years  he  had  attended  a  Methodist  Sunday- 
school  in  his  native  county  in  Ohio,  and  he  had  never 


346  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

forgotten  its  precepts.'  "  "  We  come  together  to-night," 
said  he,  "  those  who  love  this  cause,  from  all  quarters  of 
the  Union,  even  from  beyond  the  seas,  to  attest  our  inter- 
est in  it.  Four  millions  of  Sabbath-school-scholars  in  this 
Republic — what  an  army  !  Not  '  an  army  terrible  with 
banners,'  but  an  army  beautiful  with  the  snow-white  ban- 
ner which  has  inscribed  upon  it  one  sentence— the  affec- 
tionate command  of  the  Saviour  of  mankind — '  Feed  My 
lambs.'  In  that  sign  we  go  forth  to  labor." 

This  was  a  unique  situation  for  a  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States.  There  were  not  wanting  men  to  sneer  at 
him  and  exercise  their  ribald  wit  at  his  expense.  But 
there  was  doubtless  as  much  intellect  within  the  sound  of 
his  voice  as  he  ever  addressed  in  either  hall  of  the  Capitol 
or  at  any  hustings,  and  more  heart  and  conscience.  These 
labors  were  addressed  to  the  fountain-head  of  human 
affairs.  These  people  were  striving  to  teach  the  little  ones, 
who  must  in  their  turn  bear  the  burdens  of  life,  to  be  gentle 
and  obedient,  loving  and  pure.  The  Vice-President  was 
never  engaged  in  a  work  of  greater  dignity,  appropriate- 
ness, or  importance,  and  he  went  right  on  with  it  as  long 
as  he  lived. 

He  never  declined  appeals  to  advocate  good  causes  un- 
less compelled  to  by  more  immediate  duties.  And  so  he 
might  this  week  be  found  responding  to  a  toast  on  Fore- 
fathers' Day,  dedicating  a  Young  Men's  Christian  Associ- 
ation Hall;  presiding  at  a  literary  or  art  dinner  in  New 
York  or  Boston  ;  next  week  addressing  a  temperance 
meeting,  an  Odd  Fellows'  celebration,  an  Orphans'  Fair, 
or  a  Sunday-school  reunion  in  Washington,  Philadelphia, 
or  Baltimore.  He  was  everywhere  received  with  genuine 
enthusiasm  ;  magistrates  and  dignitaries  and  the  best  peo- 
ple hastened  to  do  him  honor.  He  was  an  engaging  speaker 
on  these  various  occasions  ;  not  altogether  a  divine,  a  phi- 
losopher, a  scholar,  a  man  of  the  world  or  of  affairs,  but  a 
combination  of  what  is  best  in  all  of  them.  "  His  speech 
last  evening,"  said  \htPost  of  Philadelphia,  "transcends 
anything  we  have  ever  heard  on  the  subject  of  temper- 
ance." Why?  Because  he  spoke  from  the  heart,  in  a 


FORTY-FIRST  CONGRESS.  347 

straightforward,  manly  way,  and  a  man's  goodness  is  a 
part  of  his  eloquence.  No  synopses  could  more  than 
mutilate  these  glowing  addresses,  which  never  ceased  to 
fall  from  his  lips  while  he  was  Vice-President,  nor,  indeed, 
while  he  lived.  On  this  occasion  Governor  Geary  intro- 
duced him,  and  the  City  Councils  tendered  Independence 
Hall  for  a  public  reception.  He  declined  the  reception  on 
the  plea  of  official  business.  With  his  exhaustless  love  of 
men  and  enjoyment  of  social  festivities,  he  was  beginning 
to  weary  a  little  of  public  attention. 

Publishers  placed  the  best  space  in  the  best  journals  at 
his  disposal,  and  paid  him  liberally  to  use  it.  His  articles, 
especially  on  current  politics,  ran  through  the  party  press, 
and  all  men  were  his  readers.  An  article  in  the  New  York 
Independent,  early  in  1870,  noted  in  detail  the  claims  of 
Grant's  Administration  to  confidence,  and  a  second  article, 
published  in  August,  brought  the  record  down  to  the  eve  of 
the  fall  elections.  The  Vice-President  rejoiced  in  recon- 
struction completed,  Army  and  Navy  reduced  to  a  peace 
footing,  eighty-four  millions  of  taxation  taken  off,  provision 
made  for  funding  the  national  debt  at  a  lower  rate  of  in- 
terest, and  for  the  rapid  reduction  of  the  principal.  No 
writer  ever  had  a  better  field.  We  had  peace.  The  coun- 
try was  springing  forward  with  a  prosperity  almost  feverish, 
and  the  financial  success  of  the  Administration  was  un- 
precedented. In  every  respect  the  contrast  with  the  pre- 
ceding Administration  was  very  striking. 

Urgent  demand  for  his  services  in  the  fall  canvass  of  1870 
came  from  every  Congressional  district  of  his  State.  Not  a 
candidate  himself  for  any  office,  he  said  truly  that  he  might 
fairly  "  lie  off."  But  it  was  a  labor  of  love,  and  he  spoke 
in  thirty  of  the  fair  cities  of  Indiana.  "  Had  not  your 
speech  at  Rushville  been  the  most  magnificent  oratorical 
effort  I  ever  heard,"  a  reporter  (Mr.  J.  Q.  Thompson) 
wrote  him  apologetically,  "  maybe  I  could  have  written 
something  worthy  of  it  ;  but  all  I  could  say  looked  so  tame 
as  a  critique,  that  my  erasures  constituted  a  sponge  for  the 
whole  of  it."  He  was  received  with  all  the  demonstrations 
of  pride  and  pleasure  men  knew  how  to  make,  and  the 


348  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

crowds  that  assembled  to  hear  him  exceeded  in  numbers 
and  enthusiasm  the  outpourings  of  the  early  years  of  the 
great  contest  with  slavery. 

His  opening  speech  at  South  Bend,  September  loth, 
was,  perhaps,  the  strongest  he  ever  made.  "  I  come  be- 
fore you,"  said  he,  "  to  render  an  account  of  the  steward- 
ship by  the  great  Republican  Party  of  the  interests  which 
were  committed  to  its  charge  by  the  votes  of  the  people  in 
1868."  And  sentence  followed  sentence  for  two  hours  and 
a  half,  each  as  clean-cut,  pithy,  well  directed,  and  well 
delivered  as  a  rifle-shot.  Facts  and  figures  were  marshalled 
and  thrown  into  action  with  the  precision  and  skill  of  an 
old  tactician,  with  the  air  of  a  commander,  and  with  the 
power  of  a  demonstration.  "  In  the  masterly,  resistless, 
and  overwhelming  scope,  structure,  and  force  of  the  whole 
argument,"  Mr.  Shellabarger,  of  Ohio,  wrote  him,  "  it 
seems  to  me  that  your  speech  is  most  admirable,  and  merits 
and  will  receive  the  gratitude  of  the  country."  "  I  am 
dreading  the  necessity  of  going  to  press,"  wrote  Mr. 
Whitelaw  Reid  from  the  New  York  Tribune  office,  "with- 
out telling  that  you  have  won  a  handsome  victory  in  Indi- 
ana. If  it  is  won,  I  am  sure  the  result  will  be  largely  due 
to  your  unceasing  and  unselfish  efforts."  But  it  was  not 
won.  Too  many  Republicans  remained  at  home  on  elec- 
tion-day. They  were  too  content. 

There  was  abundance  of  political  discontent,  too,  and 
it  naturally  sought  to  make  the  Vice-President  its  leader 
and  exponent.  This  he  declined  to  be.  "  I  have  read 
your  letter,"  he  writes  a  friend  (Mr.  S.  Newton  Pettis), 
August  22d  ;  "  but  it  does  not  shake  my  determination  in 
the  least.  I  am  resolved  to  retire  to  private  life  at  the  end 
of  this  term,  and  under  no  circumstances  could  I  allow  my 
name  ever  to  be  thought  of  against  the  President.  I  am 
his  sincere  friend,  and  you  will  find,  whatever  local  dis- 
affections  there  may  be  as  to  appointments  [and  if  he  had 
been  inspired  he  could  not  have  prevented  them],  his  re- 
nomination,  if  matters  stand  as  they  do  now,  will  be  as 
unanimous  as  President  Lincoln's  was  in  1864." 

Ever  since  his  depression  after  the  death  of  his  first 


FORTY-FIRST   CONGRESS.  349 

wife,  he  had  longed  to  escape  from  public  life  ;  but  the  tur- 
bulence of  Johnson's  Administration  forbade  it.  He  was 
of  opinion  that,  but  for  the  perversity  of  Johnson,  the 
Presidency  might  have  come  to  him  in  1867-68.  Probably 
he  was  in  error  ;  very  likely  Grant  would  have  been  preferred 
in  any  event.  Now  there  were  eight  years  of  Grant,  with 
more  great  soldiers  behind,  and  strong  men  coming  on 
who  would  never  wait  for  the  Presidency  to  come  to  them 
if  they  could  by  any  means  force  it  a  little. 

Into  a  struggle  for  the  Presidential  nomination,  or  for 
nomination  to  any  other  office,  it  was  not  in  the  Vice- 
President's  nature  to  enter,  and  he  was  never  really  a 
favorite  with  the  men  who  make  Presidents.  His  constitu- 
ency was  the  people,  whom  the  manipulators  of  politics 
generally  manage  to  muzzle.  Always  his  nominations  had 
come  by  general  consent,  without  intrigue,  "  bulldozing," 
or  "log-rolling."  In  his  own  district,  from  his  young 
days,  every  man  who  held  with  the  party  had  been  cordially 
invited  to  participate  in  nominating  conventions,  not  by 
hundreds,  but  by  thousands,  and  when  they  spoke  they 
uttered  the  free  voice  of  the  people  of  the  district.  "  If 
they  present  men  of  character  and  qualifications,"  said  he, 
"  I  stand  by  them  as  I  do  by  the  President,  and  as  I  stand 
by  your  principles  in  Congress."  For  the  Speakership 
there  had  never  been  even  a  caucus  candidate  against 
him,  the  mention  of  Washburne  in  1863  not  rising  to  the 
dignity  of  a  candidacy.  He  was  not  the  choice  of  the 
party  chiefs  for  Vice-President.  The  galleries,  acting 
through  the  delegates,  nominated  him.  If  the  Presidency 
were  to  come  to  him  at  all,  it  must  drop  to  him  like  a  ripe 
apple  ;  and  although  millions  continued  to  desire  it,  and 
thousands  to  suggest  it  to  him,  he  felt  sure  the  day  for 
that  had  passed. 

He  recognized  that  rotation  in  office  is  the  law  of  pop- 
ular politics.  "  The  King  is  dead  !  Long  live  the  King  !" 
applies  in  this  country  not  to  one,  but  to  multitudes, 
while  life  tenure  applies  to  no  one.  The  American  people 
wrong  themselves  when  they  ignore  the  fact  that  the  man 
who  serves  two  or  three  terms  in  Congress  with  credit  has 


350  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

had  an  honorable  public  career.  No  man  can  continue  in 
office  in  this  country  for  twenty  or  thirty  years  without 
doing  injustice  to  other  men.  Other  men  are  thereby 
wrongfully  kept ,  out  of  their  fair  share  of  public  service 
and  public  honors.  And  to  say  that  he  fails  who  cLoes  not 
reach  the  Chief  Magistracy,  is  to  say  that  all  but  a  score 
of  men  in  three  generations  must  fail.  Indeed,  it  has  come 
to  be  that  no  man  great  enough  to  make  a  respectable  fail- 
ure ever  reaches  the  Presidency,  unless  by  accident  or  as 
a  successful  soldier. 

In  the  opening  of  the  canvass  in  his  own  town,  on  the 
loth  of  September,  Mr.  Colfax  said  :  "  It  is  well  known  to 
many  of  you  that  I  intend  that  the  present  term  shall  close 
my  connection  with  public  office  and  public  duties."  He 
had  already  written  the  same  to  a  friend  in  the  East,  who 
immediately  published  the  letter.  He  would  have  had,  he 
said,  eighteen  years  of  continuous  service  at  Washington, 
and  his  ambition  was  satisfied.  Grant  would  be  renomi- 
nated,  at  least  ought  to  be,  with  an  Eastern  or  Southern 
man  for  Vice.  "  I  shall  leave  public  life  without  a  regret, 
and  I  expect  to  go  into  active  business." 

A  breeze  followed  the  publication  of  this  letter.  What 
does  it  mean  ?  men  asked.  Some  thought  it  was  apolitical 
manoeuvre,  like  Caesar  putting  away  the  crown.  But  there 
was  no  crown  for  Colfax  to  put  away.  In  his  judgment, 
he  was  renouncing  nothing.  The  Presidency  had,  perhaps, 
once  inclined  toward  him,  but  if  so,  it  had  forever  with- 
drawn itself.  One  term  of  the  Vice-Presidency  shelves 
most  men  ;  why  should  he  desire  two  ?  He  had  seen  some 
service  in  the  House — fourteen  years,  and  worn  all  its  hon- 
ors. The  Senate  had  never  any  charms  for  him,  and  if  it 
had,  his  State  was  an  uncertain  reliance.  He  had  long 
served  a  constituency  coextensive  with  the  land,  long 
borne  the  responsibilities  of  leadership.  "  The  great  strug- 
gle is  over,  the  prize  won,"  John  Sherman  wrote  him  ; 
"  there  seems  but  little  in  the  immediate  future  of  Ameri- 
can politics  to  occupy  any  one."  He  felt  that  he  had  done 
his  share  ;  his  salary  had  never  paid  his  expenses  ;  he  had 
accumulated  comparatively  nothing,  and  he  had  a  growing 


FORTY-FIRST   CONGRESS.  351 

family — why  not  take  him  at  his  word  ?  But  those  who 
credited  him  with  meaning  just  what  he  said  could  not  see 
how  he  was  going  to  carry  it  out. 

Mr.  Bowles,  just  returned  from  Switzerland,  wrote  him  : 
"  I  congratulate  you  on  your  letter,  on  your  great  speech, 
on  your  wife  and  baby,  and  on  your  purpose  to  come  here 
and  spend  Sunday  with  us.  All  shows  wisdom  and  good 
taste.  Both  the  letter  and  the  speech  attracted  a  good 
deal  of  attention  abroad,  and  won  much  favorable  com- 
ment. You  will  not  go  out  of  public  life,  but  it  is  a 
blessed  thing  to  be  ready  to,  and,  more,  to  want  to." 
Mr.  Secretary  Boutwell  wrote  him  :  '  You  think  you 
shall  go  out  of  office  and  keep  out.  Of  myself  I  think  the 
same.  The  bystanders  would  say  of  us  both  that  we  shall 
stay  in  until  the  people  say  *  Go  !'  which  will  not  be  soon 
in  your  case,  but  any  time  in  mine."  Senator  John  Sher- 
man wrote  him  :  "  Precisely  as  you  wrote  I  have  often 
thought,  but  cannot  yet  express  without  being  misunder- 
stood. I  fear,  too,  the  drift  of  events  will  lead  to  defeat, 
when  we  may  not  be  at  liberty  to  retire."  The  Rev. 
Robert  Collyer  wrote  him  :  "  Tens  of  thousands  of  men 
feel,  as  I  do,  that  you  are  one  of  very  few  we  can  believe 
in  always  and  everywhere  to  see  the  truth,  and  tell  it,  and 
do  it,  and  do  nothing  against  it,  though  the  fee  simple  of 
the  land  were  offered  you  for  the  sale  of  your  soul.  You 
must  not  go  out  of  the  national  service  of  your  own 
accord." 

The  Boston  Journal  said  :  "  This  adds  another  claim  to 
the  public  respect  which  no  retirement  can  elude.  Mr. 
Colfax  has  shown  that  a  politician  can  be  popular,  even 
in  Washington,  without  compromising  that  character 
which  most  commends  itself  to  the  best  men  and  the  best 
women  of  the  day.  In  the  exigencies,  too,  when  men  who 
were  thought  bolder  hesitated  and  kept  silent,  this  merely 
amiable  man,  as  he  is  called  by  them  who  do  not  under- 
stand him,  spoke  the  right  word,  and  led  public  senti- 
ment." The  Washington  correspondent  of  the  Sacramento 
Record  said  :  "  The  country  and  the  Republican  Party 
can  ill  afford  to  lose  him,  and  there  are  not  a  few  of  his 


352  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

companions  in  office  who  will  do  their  best  to  sway  him 
from  his  purpose."  The  press  had  always  lauded  him  as 
one  of  their  guild,  and  because  he  was  both  loved  and 
admired  ;  the  appreciative  notices  they  gave  him  on  this 
occasion  were  innumerable,  and  their  words  seemed 
weighted  with  all  the  regard  and  affection  that  words  can 
be  made  to  contain  or  convey. 

"  If  there  is  a  happy  man  in  Washington  it  is  Colfax," 
said  the  Washington  correspondent  of  the  Brooklyn  Union, 
this  winter  of  1870.  "  Politics  are  getting  rather  grim  and 
rancorous.  There  is  perplexity  in  the  air  and  in  men's 
hearts.  Old  party  companions  are  saying  hard  words  of 
each  other.  By  what  exploit  of  self-discipline  is  it  or  by 
what  felicity  of  temperament  that  Mr.  Colfax  is  as  fresh 
and  light-hearted  as  a  boy  just  let  out  of  school?"  He 
was  with  Grant,  as  with  Lincoln,  his  confidential  counsel- 
lor, and  they  were  much  together.  This  Christmas  of  1870 
he  spoke  at  a  fair  in  aid  of  the  orphans  made  by  the  war, 
the  associations  of  his  theme  and  of  the  season  lending  to 
his  lips  an  unusual  felicity  of  expression.  His  home  was 
a  wilderness  of  Christmas  presents,  an  enchanted  palace 
out  of  the  Arabian  Nights.  There  sat  his  baby  boy,  be- 
wildered, glancing,  as  we  may  suppose,  with  dreamy,  won- 
dering eyes  from  his  mother  to  the  brilliant  pieces  of  a 
thousand- dollar  silver  service,  and  back  again,  presented 
by  the  grave  and  reverend  Senators,  upon  whom  association 
with  their  presiding  officer  had  wrought  its  usual  charm. 
He  had  captivated  them,  and  so  far  as  he  was  concerned 
they  were  all  of  the  same  politics.  Amid  the  strivings, 
the  perplexities,  the  successes,  the  failures,  and  all  the 
anxious  rivalries  of  the  Capital,  the  Vice-President  moved 
serenely,  the  genius  of  peace  and  happiness. 

In  January,  1871,  he  writes  Mr.  Bowles  :  "  You  have 
seen  about  the  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  per  year  offer. 
It  is  a  reality.  Inter  nos,  though  I  have  tried  to  keep  the 
details  out  of  the  papers,  it  was  Jay  Cooke,  for  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad,  but  it  involved,  of  course,  my  resig- 
nation as  Vice-President,  which  no  money  consideration 
could  justify,  in  my  opinion.  I  told  him  that  duty  prevented 


FORTY-FIRST  CONGRESS.  353 

it,  but  that  I  felt  honored  by  such  appreciation,  as  it  was 
the  most  magnificent  offer  I  had  ever  heard  of.  He  writes 
me  since,  insisting  that  if  he  and  his  railroad  cannot  have 
me,  I  must  stay  in  public  life  ;  but  that  is  a  past  issue,  you 
know."  Mr.  Jay  Cooke  writes  the  author,  May  i5th,  1886  : 
"  My  idea  was  that  Mr.  Colfax  could  combine  his  editorial, 
political,  and  oratorical  talents  in  such  a  way  as  to  widely 
enlarge  the  interest  in  the  grand  work  I  had  undertaken, 
and  greatly  enhance  the  success  I  hoped  for.  I  felt  that 
his  aid  would  be  well  worth  the  salary  proposed/' 

But  he  was  not  in  his  customary  robustness  of  health. 
He  had  not  quite  the  spring  and  elasticity  of  twenty  years 
before,  and  the  last  canvass  had  worn  him  down  ;  rather, 
the  high  pressure  at  which  he  had  been  running  all  his  life 
caused  the  machinery  to  sound  a  note  of  warning.  On  the 
22d  of  May,  1871,  attacked  with  vertigo  in  its  severest 
form,  he  fell  insensible  at  his  post  in  the  Senate.  "  I  sus- 
pect I  was  very  near  the  gates  of  death,"  he  wrote  Sinclair. 
"  My  pulse  ran  down  to  thirty,  and  I  was  cold  except 
around  the  heart  for  hours  after  the  attack."  A  great  and 
tender  solicitude  was  manifested  by  the  people  in  all  parts 
of  the  land.  The  Brooklyn  Eagle  (Democratic)  of  May  26th, 
1871, said  : 

"  It  is,  in  a  manner^  both  sad  and  suggestive  to  note  the  universal 
esteem  and  good  feeling,  the  grief,  and  the  warm  wishes  for  recovery, 
which  perfume  the  breezes  from  the  Potomac  and  the  Capitolean  Hill, 
that  are  wafted  over  the  sick  man's  bed.  .  .  .  Let  it  be  said  to  his  honor, 
while  the  opportunity  still  remains,  that  he  has  planted  no  antipathies  ; 
he  has  crushed  none  and  conquered  many  of  his  rivals  ;  he  has  lived  pure 
and  poor  in  an  atmosphere  redolent  of  dishonesty  and  of  opportunities 
for  ill-gotten  affluence  ;  he  has  been  open-handed  to  the  young,  deferen- 
tial to  the  old,  as  considerate  to  inferiors  as  to  equals,  and,  if  possible, 
more  popular  with  opponents  than  among  his  party  followers  in  public 
life.  We  wish  him  many  long  and  happy  years  of  perfect  health  and  high 
honor,  but  we  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  seriousness  of  his  present 
situation. 

"  If  he  is  to  be  called  hence  in  the  prime  of  his  life,  and,  by  indica- 
tion, long  before  the  exhaustion  of  his  political  opportunities  and  pros- 
pects ;  if  he  is  soon  to  snap  the  domestic  ties  so  recently,  so  happily,  and 
so  modestly  formed,  and  but  yesterday,  as  it  were,  crowned  with  a  new 
life  and  a  new  hope,  then  a  man,  really  good,  and  nearly  great,  will  be 


354  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

lost  to  the  public  service  ;  one  who  was  admired  without  envy,  and  whose 
climacteric  career  never  imbued  him  with  undemocratic  instincts — a 
genuinely  self-made  man,  an  honest  office-holder,  a  fast  friend,  and  a 
Christian  patriot  and  gentleman." 

Anxious  eyes,  from  ocean  to  ocean,  scanned  the  bulle- 
tins from  Washington.  In  about  a  week  it  was  announced 
that  he  was  out  of  danger,  and  bade  fair  to  speedily  re- 
cover. May  3ist  he  started  home  in  a  special  car,  tendered 
by  the  Pennsylvania  Central  Railroad.  "  No  public  officer 
has  become  more  endeared  to  the  people  of  the  whole 
country,"  said  the  New  York  Tribune  ;  "  and  for  the  speedy 
and  permanent  recovery  of  no  one  could  more  fervent  or 
universal  aspirations  ascend  from  all  parts  of  the  country." 

His  physicians  attributed  the  attack  to  over-mental 
work  without  relaxation,  aggravated  by  a  low  state  of 
vitality  and  the  vitiated  air  of  the  long  executive  sessions 
of  the  Senate,  with  closed  doors  and  windows.  The  only 
wonder  was,  they  said,  that  it  had  not  come  long  ago.  He 
had  had  three  attacks  of  vertigo  before,  but  very  much  less 
severe  ;  two  of  them  while  he  was  speaking  ;  and  he  had 
such  attacks,  or  something  similar,  once  or  twice  afterward 
when  speaking  and  also  when  walking.  He  had  done  the 
work  of  two  or  three  men  for  twenty  years.  "  Certainly, 
since  first  elected  Speaker,  I  have  never  risen  in  the  morn- 
ing here  at  Washington  that  I  have  not  felt  I  had  twice  as 
much  work  to  do  that  day  as  there  was  really  time  for." 
His  prostration  brought  him  no  relief.  "  The  correspond- 
ence pours  in  on  me  as  usual — office-seeking,  money-beg- 
ging, and  business  and  inquiries  of  all  kinds,"  he  writes 
Sinclair,  June  nth.  "  But  I  answer  only  the  twentieth  of 
it.  Mrs.  Coif  ax  takes  me  out  riding  about  two  hours  a 
day,  and  I  walk  out  in  the  garden  without  help  one  hour 
a  day.  Have  no  pain  or  sickness,  only  weakness.  I  gain 
strength  slowly,  and  realize  that  when  I  have  fully  recov- 
ered I  am  to  feel  like  a  man  of  fifty  instead  of  thirty,  as 
heretofore."  It  had  been  given  out  that  hard  smoking  oc- 
casioned this  attack.  He  had  smoked  but  one  cigar  that  day, 
and  evening  was  near  when  he  was  taken  ill.  He  thought 
it  best  to  break  off,  however,  and  he  never  smoked  again. 


FORTY-FIRST  CONGRESS.  355 

July  nth  he  writes  Mrs.  Sinclair  that  he  is  well  and 
strong  as  ever.  "  Our  people  have  enjoyed  seeing  me 
pick  raspberries  day  after  day,  and,  indeed,  week  after 
week,  as  they  thought  it  really  looked  like  resting  from 
mental  pursuits.  Never  before  had  I  felt  that  I  had  time 
for  it.  I  picked  bushels,  as  we  had  great  quantities."  The 
doctor  allowed  him  to  go  to  Valparaiso  for  the  Fourth,  on 
condition  that  he  keep  out  of  the  sun  and  shake  hands 
sparingly.  "  But  it  was  the  Fourth,  you  know,  and  how 
could  one  avoid  mounting  the  American  bird  for  a  few 
minutes  ?  Hundreds  squeezed  my  hand,  and  with  tears  in 
their  eyes,  saying  they  had  feared  they  were  never  to  see 
me  alive  again.  I  see;  just  as  lam  going  out  of  public 
life,  Horace  [Greeley]  is  being  put  on  the  track  for  the 
Presidency.  If  I  were  not  so  sincere  a  Grant  man  I 
should  be  satisfied  with  the  new  movement.  But  I  am 
honestly  for  Grant,  and  can  give  you  a  hundred  reasons 
when  we  meet." 

Subsequently  Marvin  H.  Bovee,  of  Wisconsin,  wrote 
him  :  "  The  last  time  I  saw  Horace  Greeley  was  at  La- 
crosse, Wis.,  in  November,  1871.  In  conversation  with 
him  at  the  hotel  after  his  lecture  that  evening,  I  brought 
up  the  question  of  his  Presidential  aspirations.  '  Yes,'  he 
said,  '  I  shall  be  a  candidate  before  the  National  Republi- 
can Convention  ;  not  that  I  want  the  nomination,  but  I 
hope  to  develop  sufficient  strength  in  that  convention  to 
force  Grant  off  the  track  and  to  nominate  Schuyler  Col- 
fax.'  " 

In  August,  with  Senator  Windom  and  other  gentlemen, 
the  Vice-President  visited  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  to 
get  a  breath  of  prairie  and  pine  forest.  In  that  part  of 
the  country  he  did  two  characteristic  things.  At  Winona 
he  addressed  a  Sunday-school  :  "  Be  masters  of  your  tem- 
pers," said  he  ;  "  hasty  words  cause  more  unhappiness 
than  anything  else.  Do  no  act  privately  that  you  would  not 
like  to  have  exposed."  At  Fort  Abercrombie,  in  the  ranks 
drawn  up  to  do  him  honor,  was  a  soldier  wearing  ball  and 
chain  for  desertion  ;  he  secured  this  man's  pardon.  To  a 
•S"/.  Paul  Dispatch  reporter,  with  reference  to  published 


356  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

charges  that  he  was  a  party  to  the  movement  against  the 
renomination  of  Grant,  he  said  :  *'  I  am  for  Grant  against 
the  field,  open  and  above  board.  I  am  here  unofficially, 
seeking  rest.  Have  been  out  beyond  roads,  where  we 
travelled  by  compass,  seventy  miles  beyond  Georgetown 
toward  the  Cheyenne  ;  it  is  a  beautiful  country,  not  an 
acre  of  waste  land.  I  feel  a  great  deal  better  than  when  I 
first  came  up,  and  have  been  greatly  pleased  with  the 
magnificent  country  I  have  seen."  At  Otter  Tail  Lake  the 
Chippewa  chief,  Little  Rabbit,  and  thirty  braves  paid  their 
respects,  the  chief  making  a  speech  full  of  complaints  : 
they  had  been  cheated  out  of  their  lands,  were  poor,  suffer- 
ing beggars,  etc.  In  reply,  the  Vice-President  said  he  rec- 
ognized them  as  children  of  the  Almighty  Father  of  all 
men,  but  that  they  must  employ  the  same  means  their 
white  brothers  do,  if  they  would  be  strong  and  comfortable. 
They  must  learn  to  do  their  part  ;  then  the  Government 
and  the  white  people  would  aid  them  to  till  their  lands,  pro- 
vide for  their  families,  and  school  their  children.  Gov- 
ernor Austin  and  Senators  Windom  and  Ramsey  did  the 
honors  at  St.  Paul,  showing  the  Vice-President  everything 
of  interest  about  the  city  and  in  the  vicinity.  Declining  a 
military  reception,  tendered  by  General  Hancock,  he  went 
to  Brainerd,  thence  to  Duluth,  and  thence  back  to  St.  Paul, 
and  directly  home.  Speaking  occasionally  at  reunions  of 
the  Indiana  soldiers  and  of  the  Odd  Fellows,  he  took  no 
part  in  the  canvass  this  autumn. 

Before  leaving  for  the  Northwest,  he  received  the  fol- 
lowing letter  : 

Private. 

"  LONG  BRANCH,  N.  J.,  August  4,  1871. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  owe  an  apology  for  not  writing  to  you  soon  after 
coming  to  this  place,  as  I  fully  intended  to  do,  to  inquire  after  your 
health.  But  hearing  through  the  papers  daily  of  your  steady  improve- 
ment, and  knowing  your  proneness  to  answer  all  letters,  a  task  which  I 
did  not  want  to  impose,  and  my  own  laziness  must  be  accepted  as  a  full 
apology.  (This  is  a  long  sentence  to  contain  so  little,  is  it  not  ?)  To 
be  candid,  I  do  not  know  that  I  would  impose  on  you  a  letter  now,  know- 
ing that  it  must  be  answered,  only  that  I  am  just  tht  least  selfish.  You 
know  that  Governor  Fish  came  into  my  Cabinet  reluctantly  ;  that  I  have 


FORTY-FIRST  CONGRESS.  357 

retained  him  by  persistence,  against  his  will,  as  long  as  I  have.  Now 
he  says  he  must  go,  and  seeing,  as  I  do,  that  he  is  suffering  in  health,  I 
have  not  the  heart  to  urge  him  stronger  than  has  already  been  done  to 
remain  longer  than  he  has  consented  to — the  meeting  of  Congress  in 
December.  I  have  cast  about  in  my  own  thoughts  for  a  man  from  New 
York  or  Pennsylvania  who  would  strike  the  public  favorably,  and  suit  me, 
at  the  same  time.  Now,  I  have  one  suggestion,  going  out  of  those  States, 
that  will  suit  me  exactly,  and  I  believe  the  public  generally,  if  he  will 
give  up  a  higher  for  a  lower  and  harder  position.  In  plain  English  will 
you  give  up  the  Vice-Presidency  to  be  Secretary  of  State  for  the  balance  of 
my  term  of  office  ?  That  is  a  question  that  might  have  been  asked  in  one 
sentence.  It  requires  an  answer,  too.  In  all  my  heart  I  hope  you  will 
say  yes,  though  I  confess  the  sacrifice  you  will  be  making. 

"  I  will  say  to  you,  confidentially,  that  I  have  thought  of  Andrew 
White  as  coming  nearest  to  my  own  notions  of  any  one  in  the  State  of 
New  York.  He  has  filled  no  public  position  to  bring  him  prominently 
before  the  people.  In  Pennsylvania  I  have  not  been  able  to  think  of  any 
one.  Now,  I  want  a  short  letter  from  you,  giving  your  views  about  this 
matter. 

"  Everything  seems  to  be  working  favorably  for  a  loyal  administra- 
tion of  the  Government  for  four  years  after  the  4th  of  March,  1873.  It  is 
important  that  we  should  have  such  an  administration,  though  it  is  not 
important  who  the  head  may  be.  Whoever  has  the  place  will  have  a 
slave's  life.  My  only  anxiety  in  the  matter  is  that  there  shall  be  entire 
harmony  and  unanimity  in  favor  of  the  choice  of  the  convention  which 
nominates  him.  Tammany  and  '  the  New  Departure  Democracy  '  are 
working  to  that  end.  Some  who  profess  to  be  with  us  take  a  course  to 
defeat  them.  All  will  be  well,  however,  I  hope  and  confidently  believe. 
Please  present  my  kindest  regards  to  Mrs.  Colfax  and  Colfax,  Jr. 

"  Faithfully  yours, 

"  U.  S.  GRANT. 

"  HON.  SCHUYLER  COLFAX,  Vice-President." 

The  author  has  been  unable  to  recover  the  answer  to 
this  letter,  but  certainly  the  Vice-President  declined  the 
President's  invitation  or  request,  and  doubtless  because 
of  disinclination  to  lay  down  a  trust  committed  to  him 
directly  by  the  people,  even  to  oblige  his  friend. 

The  political  situation  was  fast  growing  interesting  for 
Mr.  Colfax.  To  a  man  not  absolutely  loyal  to  his 
convictions  of  duty,  it  would  have  been  embarrassing. 
That  the  Vice-President  went  through  it  without  any  im- 
putation on  his  good  faith,  shows  how  entire  was  the  con- 
fidence reposed  in  him  by  his  countrymen.  His  life-long, 


358  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

most  influential,  most  intimate  political  and  personal 
friends,  particularly  in  the  press — Greeley,  Bowles,  Hal- 
stead,  and  Medill's  and  Bross's  paper,  the  Chicago  Tribune, 
under  a  management  hostile  to  them — were  drifting  into 
opposition  to  Grant.  To  the  support  of  the  President  he 
was  committed  by  his  friendship,  by  his  sense  of  justice, 
his  knowledge  of  politics,  his  loyalty  to  the  party  which 
had  so  highly  honored  him,  and  to  the  principles  for  which 
he  had  been  contending  all  his  life.1  With  him,  as  with 
the  voters  of  the  party,  the  unhappy  little  causes  of  com- 
plaint against  the  President  had  no  weight.  To  induce  a 
serious  party  defection  on  their  account  was  to  endanger 
everything  and  gain  nothing. 

On  his  own  part,  he  was  resolved  to  retire  from  office 
and  engage  in  business.  "  But  I  long  for  unity  and  conse- 
quent victory.  These  dissensions  imperil  all.  And  with 
a  Democratic  national  triumph,  what  a  future  is  before 
us  !"  The  rank  and  file  of  the  party  and  the  loyal  leaders 
were  determined  that  he  should  run  on  the  ticket  again 
with  Grant.  The  burst  of  protest  against  his  retiring  be- 
came a  steady  stream,  and  swiftly  increased  in  volume  after 
it  appeared  that  there  was  to  be  a  serious  apostasy  among 
the  leaders  of  the  party.  As  that  apostasy,  led  by  Greeley 
and  Sumner,  grew  more  pronounced  and  gathered  strength, 
many  desired  him  to  be  a  candidate  against  Grant  ;  and 
toward  the  last  thousands  of  straight  Republicans  enter- 
tained the  hope,  if  not  the  belief,  that  Grant  would  with- 
draw, and  the  party  be  reunited  on  Colfax  for  President. 
He  was  bombarded  with  letters  from  all  parts  of  the 
country. 

From  Michigan  : 

"  I  don't  wish  to  annoy  you  by  political  allusions,  but  it  is  hard  to 
find  a  Republican  about  here  who  either  wishes  or  expects  the  renomi- 
nation  of  Grant,  and  who  is  not  ready  to  throw  up  his  hat  for  the  Vice- 
President  as  his  successor." 

From  Illinois  : 

1.  In  his  defence  of  Fremont,  in  1862,  against  Frank  Blair,  Colfax  had  occasion  to 
say  that  he  "  had  started  in  company  with  the  gentleman  from  Missouri,  and  had  kept 
on,  while  the  gentleman  had  switched  off.1'  This  was  a  similar  experience.  He  had 
started  with  these  gentlemen  :  they  were  switching  off,  he  was  keeping  on. 


FORTY-FIRST   CONGRESS.  359 

"  I  now  regret  that  you  are  and  have  been  Vice-President.  Had  you 
remained  quietly  as  Speaker,  no  power  could  have  kept  you  out  of  the 
White  House.  The  thinking  men  of  the  Republican  Party  don't  like 
Grant,  for  good  and  sufficient  reasons.  You  say  truly  that,  as  his  lieuten- 
ant, you  cannot  run  against  him.  I  think  you  were  wise  in  declining  to 
run  again  with  him.  You  know  my  reasons." 

From  Illinois  : 

"In  the  Republican  ranks  there  is  scarcely  a  dissenting  voice,  and 
among  the  people  at  large  the  wish  is  universal  that  you  shall  allow  your 
name  to  be  used  again— for  President  if  possible  ;  if  not,  as  Vice-Presi- 
dent with  General  Grant.  And  this  is  the  deep-seated,  earnest  sentiment 
of  the  people,  those  who  ask  no  office  or  reward,  nothing  but  a  continua- 
tion of  the  present  system  of  administration." 

From  New  Jersey  : 

"  I  shall  continue  my  efforts  here,  and  when  the  Philadelphia  Con- 
vention meets,  shall  go  there  and  do  all  that  I  possibly  can  to  have  the 
name  of  Colfax,  instead  of  Grant,  placed  at  the  head  of  the  ticket  ;  be- 
cause I  believe  that  in  this  way,  and  in  this  way  only,  can  the  Republican 
Party  be  saved  from  disintegration  and  defeat." 

From  Pennsylvania  : 

"  As  a  Republican  of  unquestioned  faith,  and  one  who  served  three 
years  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  the  late  war,  I  entreat  you  to  let  your 
name  come  before  the  convention,  and  rest  assured  you  will  receive  the 
nomination  in  preference  to  all  others." 

From  Indiana  : 

"  We  cannot  re-elect  General  Grant  ;  we  can  elect  you  ;  so  please 
keep  quiet,  and  do  nothing  rashly." 

There  had  been  a  quiet  but  persistent  effort  to  bring 
Greeley  and  Grant  together.  Grant  wrote  Colfax  in 
August,  1870  :  "  I  am  half  inclined  to  offer  the  English 
mission  to  Mr.  Greeley,  but  I  possibly  may  not  make  the 
offer."  In  November  Greeley  wrote  Colfax  :  "I  thank 
you  for  your  good  opinion  and  your  good  offices  ;  but  if 
the  President  should  ofierme  the  English  mission,  I  should 
decline  it.  My  business  needs  me,  and  I  don't  think  the 
English  mission  does  much."  December  ist  Colfax  wrote 
Sinclair  :  "  I  spent  several  hours  with  the  President  last 
night.  In  the  course  of  conversation,  he  said  he  had  writ- 
ten John  Russell  Young  [then  on  the  Tribune]  about  his 


360  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

regard  for  Mr.  Greeley,  and  his  desire  to  have  him  come 
and  spend  an  evening  with  him,  and  that  Young  said  he 
had  read  it  to  Mr.  Greeley."  A  little  later  the  President 
and  Mr.  Greeley  met  at  the  Walbridge  funeral.  General 
Grant  took  Mr.  Greeley  up  in  his  carriage,  and  carried  him 
off  to  dine  and  spend  the  evening  with  him.  But  nothing 
availed  to  reconcile  the  philosopher  to  the  President's  lead- 
ership. He  had  been  dissatisfied  with  the  party  policy 
ever  since  the  war  ceased.  It  had  not  been  sufficiently 
conciliatory  toward  the  South  to  please  him.  Mr.  Bowles 
wrote  Colfax  January  2d,  1871  : 

"  I  am  pretty  much  disheartened,  however,  about  Grant.  I  have  held 
out,  until  within  two  or  three  days,  with  the  hope  that  he  might  reform 
his  tendencies,  and  save  both  himself  and  us.  But  I  fear  it  is  too  late, 
and  that  our  only  hope  of  saving  the  party  is  in  successfully  relieving  our- 
selves from  him  two  years  hence.  The  pressing  of  the  San  Domingo 
question,  and  the  means  by  which  it  is  done,  are  a  great  scandal  and  out- 
rage ;  and  it  is  such  a  violation  of  the  platform  he  laid  down  in  his  in- 
augural, that  it  goes  far  to  destroy  all  confidence.  I  am  glad  you  can 
keep  your  faith  and  your  hope  ;  I  shall  cling  to  a  little  through  you  ;  but 
it  is  pretty  discouraging.  I  say  all  this  without  any  special  approval  of 
Sumner's  course.  His  manner  of  fighting  the  President  and  his  San 
Domingo  schemes  seem  to  be  unfortunate  for  all  parties  ;  but,  on  the  ab- 
stract question,  he  has  the  real  heart  of  the  Republican  Party  with  him." 

And  again,  January  2ist  : 

"  You  need  never  apologize  for  writing  frankly  to  me  on  points  of  dif- 
ference. I  was  very  glad  to  read  all  you  would  say  in  defence  of  Grant, 
and  had  purposed  to  put  before  you,  at  length,  the  other  side  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  but  no  matter  now.  The  San  Domingo  business  has  taken  a 
healthier  turn,  and  I  hope  the  report  of  the  commission  will  be  the  end 
of  the  whole  question  for  the  present.  It  is  the  only  way  to  peace  in  the 
party,  and  to  the  successful  continuknce  of  the  Administration.  But  the 
want  of  faith  in  Grant's  wisdom,  his  incapacity  for  his  position,  it  seems 
to  me,  is  both  strengthening  and  deepening,  and  I  still  think  we  shall 
change  candidates.  Who?  you  ask.  Well,  if  it  was  left  to  me,  I 
should  have  no  hesitation  in  answering  ;  and,  it  seems  to  me,  my  candi- 
date never  stood  so  good  a  chance  as  he  does  now  ;  and  that,  indeed,  he 
will  prove  almost  the  only  hopeful  resort  in  the  emergency  of  '72.  But 
we  will  not  talk  of  that  now.  The  least  said  about  it,  certainly  before 
the  public,  the  better." 

It  is  hardly  needful  to  say  that  Colfax  was  Bowles's 
candidate.  Writing  to  Sinclair,  April  i4th,  Colfax  says  : 


FORTY-FIRST  CONGRESS.  361 

M  As  to  politics,  you  see  I  stick  to  Grant.  I  determined  in 
1868  that  there  should  be  no  ill-feeling,  alienation,  or  dis- 
cord between  President  and  Vice  this  term.  And  I  feel 
sure  that  it  is  to  be  Grant  or  a  Democrat  in  '72.  I  am 
more  than  ever  resolved  to  quit  public  life  myself,  as  you 
will  see  when  the  time  comes." 

Mr.  Bowles  writes  again,  June  i4th  : 

"  In  public  affairs,  you  see  the  Republican,  and  note  that  we  still  fight 
with  a  free  lance.  Greeley's  speech  and  position  delight  me  immensely. 
They  will  do  great  good.  He  is  wiser  than  the  Administration,  broader 
than  his  party,  and  if  he  had  brought  the  Tribune  up  to  the  standard  of 
his  speech  in  the  last  year  or  two,  we  should  not  have  been  in  the  hard 
condition  that  we  are  now,  in  some  respects.  I  recognize,  of  course,  the 
possibility — say  probability— that  Grant  will  be  our  candidate  again.  If 
he  is,  I  expect  to  support  him.  But  we  ought  to  do  better,  and  to  go  up 
higher.  We  ought  to  have  a  man  of  higher  tone,  personally,  and  of 
larger  experience,  politically.  But  this  is  politics,  and  as  one  of  your 
doctors,  I  forbid  such  exciting  themes.  Good-by  !" 

In  the  fall  Mr.  Greeley  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
he  could  not  support  Grant  in  1872.  He  thought  it  looked 
as  though  Colfax  might  become  an  available  candidate. 
November  i5th  Sinclair  wrote  Colfax  :  "  Seriously  now,  I 
beg  you  not  to  say  again  that  you  are  in  earnest  in  your 
statements  that  you  shall  retire  from  public  life.  Nobody 
doubts  the  fact,  and  nobody  believes  that  you  would  be 
seeking  a  nomination,  even  if  you  had  not  retired  ;  but  it 
may  be  necessary  to  insist  on  your  being  a  candidate.  I 
told  Mr.  Greeley  I  should  write  you,  and  he  asked  me  to 
'  tell  Schuyler  that  he  may  publish  once  a  week  that  he  is 
for  Grant,  but  not  to  say  anything  more  about  his  own 
retirement.'  " 

This  letter  reached  Mr.  Colfax  while  he  was  character- 
istically "  taking  a  circuit  round  via  Indianapolis,  to  meet 
with  the  Odd  Fellows'  Grand  Lodge  and  dedicate  a  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  Hall,  visit  Senator  Lane  at 
Crawfordsville,  and  see  about  the  public  buildings  at 
Chicago."  He  replied,  November  25th  : 

"  I  guess  I  will  obey  your  injunctions  and  H.  G.'s  as  to  ceasing  to 
talk  about  retiring  ;  but,  as  H.  G.  concedes,  I  shall  have  to  say  about  once 
a  week  that  I  am  for  Grant,  as  I  really  am,  and  even  that  does  not  pre- 


362  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

vent  the  John  Russell  Youngs,  General  Butlers,  etc.,  from  persistently 
asserting  that  I  am  in  a  conspiracy  to  supplant  him.  If  I  had  not  been 
so  distinctly  pronounced,  mischief-makers  would  have  succeeded  in  pro- 
ducing alienations  between  us,  as  they  always  have  heretofore  done  be- 
tween President  and  Vice.  But  they  have  failed  utterly  ;  and  I  rejoice 
that  whatever  discords  there  may  be,  none  can  be  traced  to  any  ill-feeling 
between  the  two  men  the  Republicans  elected  to  their  highest  offices  in  '68. 
So  it  shall  be  to  the  end.  Doubtless  General  Grant  has  made  mistakes. 
So  has  every  public  man.  I  have  made  many  in  appointments  in  my 
district,  but  my  constituents  always  forgave  me.  Mr.  Lincoln  made 
many,  some  of  them  almost  ruinous  to  the  nation.  And  doubtless  I 
would  have  made  numberless  ones  if  I  had  been  in  Grant's  place.  One 
reason  why  I  couldn't  be  in  a  combination  for  his  place  is  that  I  never 
wanted  it.  I  would  not  exchange  offices  with  him  to-day.  I  prefer  mine 
to  any  other  in  the  Government,  but  I  concluded  to  retire  to  get  out  of 
every  one's  way,  and  because  my  ambition  was  really  satisfied.  I  think 
still  that  it  might  be  better  for  me  to  be  withdrawn  from  the  ticket,  but  I 
guess  I  will  say  no  more  about  it,  though  if  I  am  silent  two  weeks  the 
papers  will  be  after  me  in  full  cry  as  a  candidate  again." 

On  the  pth  of  November  he  wrote  President  Grant,  with 
the  view  of  preventing  misunderstanding,  which  many  were 
trying  to  create.  He  says  : 

u  Everywhere,  to  friend  and  foe,  in  print  and  in  correspondence,  I 
have  said  to  all  who  spoke  to  me  on  the  subject  of  politics  that  I  was  for 
your  renomination  and  re-election,  and  that  I  was  a  candidate  or  aspirant 
for  nothing.  And  whenever  the  dissatisfied  have  come  to  me  with  their 
complaints,  they  have  obtained  no  sympathy,  nor  aid,  nor  comfort.  I 
have  abstained  from  criticism,  even  when  I  thought  it  deserved,  so  that  no 
one  should  be  able  to  use  my  comments  in  an  unfriendly  way.  If  I  have 
had  any  influence  with  the  people,  it  has  been  used  to  discourage  and 
condemn  the  petty  carping  and  fault-finding  against  you,  and  to  endeavor 
to  increase,  not  to  diminish,  the  public  confidence  in  you.  Indeed,  I 
have  written  long  letters  to  several  editors,  old  friends  of  mine,  but  who 
have  been  unjust  to  you,  refuting  in  detail,  one  by  one,  their  charges.  It 
is  easy  to  repeat  it  now,  when  the  auspicious  result  of  the  elections  leaves 
no  doubt  as  to  next  year's  campaign,  but  I  ask  you  to  remember,  in  jus- 
tice to  me,  that  I  have  for  ten  years  said  exactly  what  I  am  still  saying 
on  this  point." 

President  Grant  replied  : 

Confidential. 

"  EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  ) 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  14,  1871.  f 

"  MY  DEAR  MR.  VICE-PRESIDENT  :  I  have  your  letter  of  the  gth  in- 
stant, and  hasten  to  answer  it,  merely  to  set  your  mind  at  rest  concerning 


•FORTY-FIRST  CONGRESS.  363 

the  possible  effect  on  me  made  by  such  publications  as  those  enclosed. 
From  the  time  of  our  election  there  have  been  people  intent  upon  creat- 
ing jealousy  between  us.  So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  their  efforts  have 
totally  failed,  and  I  want  no  evidence  but  my  senses  to  tell  me  that  their 
failure  with  you  is  equally  complete. 

"  The  New  York  Standard  is  largely  owned  and  completely  con- 
trolled by  General  Butler.  He,  Butler — to  repeat  none  of  our  conversa- 
tions except  what  is  here  pertinent — said  to  me  that  your  letter  published 
in  the  Independent  was  a  bid  for  the  Presidency,  that  you  were  Horace 
Greeley's  candidate,  etc.  I  simply  replied  testifying  my  entire  confidence 
in  the  earnestness  you  felt  in  declaring  (your  position)  to  the  country,  but 
that  if  you  should  be  the  choice  of  the  Republican  Party  I  did  not  know 
a  better  man  to  lead  them,  nor  one  that  I  could  more  earnestly  work  in 
support  of  ;  that  my  great  ambition  was  to  save  all  that  has  been  gained 
by  so  much  sacrifice  of  blood  and  treasure  ;  that  I  religiously  believed  that 
that  could  only  be  done  through  the  triumph  of  the  Republican  Party 
until  their  opponents  get  on  a  national,  patriotic,  Union  platform  ;  that 
the  choice  of  the  Republican  Party  was  my  choice  ;  that  I  held  no  patent 
right  to  the  office,  and  probably  had  the  least  desire  for  it  of  any  one 
who  had  ever  held  it,  or  was  ever  prominently  mentioned  in  connection 
with  it.  Give  yourself  not  the  least  concern  about  the  effect  on  me  of 
anything  the  papers  may  say  to  disturb  our  relations. 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

"  U.  S.  GRANT. 

"  HON.  S.  COLFAX." 

General  Butler  would  not  have  been  far  out  of  the  way 
respecting  the  Independent  article  had  any  other  man  with 
Colfax's  standing  been  its  author.  It  expressed  with 
clearness  and  precision  the  popular  demand  for  reform. 
In  view  of  the  growing  dissatisfaction  with  Grant's  leader- 
ship, of  Colfax's  faculty  of  gauging  the  direction  and 
force  of  public  sentiment,  and  of  the  fact  that  the  article 
was  republished  with  approving  comments  by  the  entire 
Republican  press,  any  other  man  than  Grant  would  have 
thought  it  cause  for  jealousy.  The  party  could  not  afford, 
said  the  writer,  to  ignore  the  increasing  popular  demand 
for  revenue  reform,  for  civil  service  reform  ;  that  the  in- 
competent and  unworthy  shall  not  be  appointed  to  office  ; 
that  the  appropriations  shall  be  reduced,  land  grants  and 
subsidies  cease,  and  general  amnesty  be  proclaimed.  It 
was  a  very  significant  article,  saying  in  effect  that  all  that 
the  Greeley  Republicans  were  demanding,  and  more,  should 


364  SCHUYLER  COLFAX.       . 

be  acceded  to  as  a  matter  of  course  ;  and  its  publication, 
under  the  circumstances,  was  conclusive  proof  of  the  Vice- 
President's  disinterestedness  and  sincerity  ;  of  his  confi- 
dence that  the  President  and  the  country  would  take  it  in 
the  spirit  in  which  it  was  put  forth. 

It  is  easy  to  criticise,  to  point  out  what  ought  to  be 
done  ;  as  easy  as  it  is  hard  to  do  it.  In  his  December  mes- 
sage to  Congress,  President  Grant  showed  that  he  could 
talk  reform  as  well  as  any  of  his  critics.  "  How  com- 
pletely our  good  President  comes  over  to  the  advanced 
platform  in  his  message  !"  Bowles  wrote  Colfax,  December 
i4th.  "  Really,  it  is  pretty  discouraging  to  those  of  us 
who  are  trying  to  have  the  convention  nominate  another 
man  !  If  he  would  only  practise  as  well  as  he  preaches,  he 
would  not  leave  a  single  inch  for  us  to  stand  upon.  Cer- 
tainly, he  encourages  us  to  go  on  in  the  cause  of  reform 
administration,  of  advancing  simplicity  and  purity  of  gov- 
ernment. Still,  I  insist  he  is  the  weakest  candidate  the 
Republican  Party  can  nominate.  And  yet,  again,  I  don't 
see  how  it  is  possible  to  nominate  anybody  else.  And  yet 
I  hope!" 


CHAPTER  XII. 
FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS. 

1871-1873. 

THE  PARTY  APPARENTLY  NEGATIVES  His  RETIREMENT. — HE  REFUSES 
TO  BE  A  CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY  AGAINST  GRANT. — THE 
CONVENTION,  GRANT'S  FRIENDS  NOMINATE  HENRY  WILSON. — GIVES 
IN  His  ADHESION  TO  THE  TICKET. — BUT  DECLINES  TO  ACTIVELY 
ENGAGE  IN  THE  CANVASS. — FORCED  TO,  HOWEVER,  TO  SAVE  THE 
DAY. — DEATH  OF  His  MOTHER. — REPLIES  TO  THE  CREDIT  MOBILIER 
CAMPAIGN  SLANDERS. — VISITS  THE  INDIANA  LEGISLATURE. — DEATH 
OF  HORACE  GREELEY. — INVITED  TO  TAKE  GREELEY'S  PLACE  ON  THE 
Tribune. — THE  NEGOTIATION,  WHY  IT  FAILED. 

THE  elections  of  November,  1871,  were  carried  by  the 
Republicans,  and  there  was  no  longer  any  reasonable 
doubt  of  Grant's  renomination.  Part  of  the  old  ticket 
being  inevitable,  the  demand  for  all  of  it  grew  stronger. 
After  the  meeting  of  Congress  urgent  appeals  were  made 
to  Colfax  to  reconsider  his  determination  to  retire,  and  a 
determination  to  nominate  him  whether  or  no  was  mani- 
fested. "  The  Republican  Party  demands  (we  use  the 
strong  word  as  the  right  word  ;  it  is  not  a  mere  request) 
that  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax  shall  again  be  its  candidate 
for  Vice-President."  This  was  the  position  taken  by  a 
large  part  of  the  Republican  press.  His  declining  two 
years  in  advance  was  termed  a  "breach  of  discipline," 
"and  the  best  rebuke/'  said  Senator  Anthony's  paper, 
the  Providence  Journal — and  in  this  it  spoke  for  the  leading 
Administration  Senators — "  will  be  a  renomination,  which, 
whatever  he  may  think  or  say,  it  will  be  hardly  possible 
for  him  to  refuse  when  imposed  upon  him  by  the  conven- 
tion representing  the  general  wish  of  the  party."  Speak- 
ing of  this  afterward,  Colonel  C.  C.  Fulton  said  in  the 


366  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Baltimore  American:  "In  short,  his  announcement  of 
retiracy  was  met  by  a  national  negative.  Leading  journals 
and  influential  Republicans  insisted  that  he  had  no  right 
to  take  himself  out  of  the  hands  of  the  party.  Under  this 
loud,  commanding,  almost  compelling  expression,  Mr. 
Colfax  so  far  modified  his  former  position  as  to  leave 
himself  at  the  order  of  his  party,  not  seeking  the  office,  nor 
yet  holding  himself  at  liberty  to  refuse.  In  this  he  did 
what  was  simply  duty." 

Near  the  end  of  1871  he  wrote  to  friends  in  South  Bend 
in  explanation  of  his  position.  While  he  had  avowed  his 
intention  to  finally  retire  from  office  at  the  end  of  his  term, 
he  had  never  said  that  he  would  reject  a  renomination  for 
his  present  place  if  the  representatives  of  the  people,  with- 
out any  agency  of  his,  deemed  it  wisest  to  renominate  the 
old  ticket.  "  Many  Senators  and  others  insist  that  the  old 
ticket,  on  various  accounts,  must  be  run  again.  I  have  no 
claims  on  my  party.  They  have  given  me  every  office  I 
desired  to  fill.  I  have  no  unsatisfied  aspirations,  no  un- 
realized ambitions.  But  I  love  my  party  too  well  to  say 
that  if,  without  my  being  a  candidate,  they  insist  on  my 
accepting  a  renomination,  I  would  throw  it  back  in  their 
faces  by  an  absolute  declination.  I  would  be  a  monster  of 
ingratitude  to  do  that.  But  if  it  comes  at  all,  it  must  come 
because  the  representatives  of  the  people  want  it,  and  not 
because  I  do."  Again,  a  little  later  :  "  You  will  see  thai  I 
have  yielded  so  far  to  the  demands  of  our  friends  here  as 
to  allow  myself  to  be  placed  just  where  you  wished  me  to 
be — that  is,  willing  to  accept  a  renomination,  if  our  friends 
deem  it  best  to  put  the  old  ticket  in  the  field.  But  I  am  for 
Grant's  renomination,  and  believe  him  to  be  the  most  un- 
justly criticised  man  that  ever  filled  the  Executive  Chair." 

Early  in  January  he  wrote  Mr.  Sinclair  : 

"  What  I  have  said  recently,  exposing  me,  as  it  does,  to  the  suspicion 
of  insincerity  in  my  heretofore  avowed  desire  of  retiring,  has  been  said  as 
a  duty  to  the  party  I  love  so  much,  which  I  have  labored  so  hard  to  build 
up  and  defend,  and  to  which  I  owe  so  much.  If  my  running  with  Grant 
would  help  to  save  the  country  from  ruinous  reaction  and  political  dis- 
aster, I  could  not  refuse." 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  367 

Away  back  in  the  fifties  he  had  laid  down  the  principle 
in  a  Register  editorial  that  nominations  were  neither  to  be 
sought  nor  declined  ;  that  every  member  of  the  party  was 
subject  to  the  order  of  the  party  ;  and  he  had  inspired  a 
similar  article  in  that  paper  in  the  sixties.  His  embarrass- 
ment now  was  caused  by  his  having  declined,  not  a  nomi- 
nation, but  a  candidacy  in  advance,  and  it  was  only  begin- 
ning. His  mistake  was  in  thinking  that  he  could  retire 
from  the  public  service  at  all  while  his  health  and  strength 
remained.  He  was  too  well  qualified  ;  office  had  always 
sought  him  ;  and  in  spite  of  all  that  afterward  happened, 
it  always  did. 

In  the  earlier  months  of  the  year,  as  the  breach  among 
Republicans  widened,  many  party  organs  favored  taking 
Colfax  for  President,  as  one  on  whom  all  Republicans 
could  unite.  Mr.  Bo  wen,  of  the  New  York  Independent^ 
questioning  Sumner,  ascertained  that  he  would  not  support 
Grant,  but  would  support  Colfax.  "If  we  can  re-elect 
General  Grant,  let  him  be  nominated  ;  but  if  it  is  doubt- 
ful, then  we  insist  that  Mr.  Colfax  must  and  shall  consent 
to  the  use  of  his  name  for  the  Presidency,"  said  the  Inde- 
pendent. The  State  of  Indiana  would  have  presented  his 
name  for  the  first  office.  He  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Indiana 
State  Journal  vetoing  such  presentation.  An  Iowa  paper, 
the  Cedar  Falls  Gazette,  thereupon  remarked  :  "  Ambitious 
without  vanity,  discreet  without  fear,  in  all  things  upright 
and  true,  Mr.  Colfax  has  written  a  letter  in  which  he  posi- 
tively declines  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  and 
reiterates  his  declaration  in  favor  of  General  Grant.  We 
do  not  think  that  should  bar  the  people  from  pressing  him 
for  that  office." 

Colonel  John  W.  Foster,  Chairman  of  the  Indiana  State 
Republican  Committee,  wrote  him  : 

"  Your  letter  in  the  Journal  was  read  with  great  pleasure  by  your 
friends,  and  I  am  satisfied  it  has  done  General  Grant  much  good  in  Indi- 
ana. It  appeared  very  opportunely,  as  a  majority  of  our  county  conven- 
tions were  held  on  the  day  it  was  published,  and  it  was  read  in  more  than 
half  the  counties  that  day.  You  will  see  its  effect  in  the  resolutions  of 
very  many  of  them." 


368  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

He  received  many  letters  frorn  Indiana  like  the  follow- 
ing : 

"  Your  message  to  the  Journal 'has  settled  the  Presidential  question  in 
Indiana  most  happily,  and  hereafter  we  shall  have  but  one  watchword — 
'  Grant  and  Colfax,'  and  we  shall,  I  feel  confident,  come  out  of  the  con- 
test in  1872,  as  we  did  in  1868,  victorious.  However  much  we  might  de- 
sire to  see  you  occupy  the  first  place  on  the  ticket,  after  what  had  been 
done,  apparently  with  your  approbation,  in  bringing  General  Grant  for- 
ward for  a  renomination,  your  best  friends  in  Indiana  did  not  see  how 
the  record  already  made  could  be  changed.  There  is  scarcely  a  doubt 
that  the  convention  on  the  22d  will  pass  resolutions  settling  the  question 
as  you  desire." 

"  Your  letter  to  Fishback  has  settled  matters.  It  kept  Wayne  County 
from  indorsing  you  [for  first  place].  It  was  doubtful  before  your  Fish- 
back  letter  as  to  result  of  our  convention  on  22d  ;  there  is  no  doubt  now. 
Your  desires  as  to  action  of  State  Convention  to  best  of  my  ability  shall 
be  carried  out." 

"  Your  letter  to  the  Indiana  State  Journal  will  not  materially  affect  the 
result.  It  was  expected  you  would,  with  characteristic  good  faith,  stand 
by  the  President  to  the  last.  You  could  not  do  otherwise,  but  your 
friends  are  not  bound  by  your  position.  There  is  no  use  in  blinking  the 
facts  that  stare  us  in  the  face — Grant  cannot  be  re-elected.  I  go  to  Indi- 
anapolis next  week  with  but  one  purpose,  and  that  is  to  fight  against  in- 
structions. The  truth  must  not  be  covered  up  now.  I  am  grateful  to 
Grant,  but  cannot  consent  to  the  sacrifice  of  the  great  Republican  Party, 
for  the  mere  purpose  of  honoring  him  with  a  second  term.  Forgive  me 
if  I  have  written  too  strongly.  I  feel  it  all." 

After  the  State  Convention  : 

"  I  regretted  nothing  so  much  as  that  our  State  instructed  for  Grant 
and  Colfax,  although  it  was  done  on  account  of  your  letter  ;  for  I  tell 
you  that  the  feeling  of  the  masses  in  the  convention  was  '  Colfax  for 
President,'  and  I  hope  that  circumstances  may  yet  make  it  so." 

The  Washington  correspondence  of  the  Cincinnati  Com- 
mercial had  the  following  in  January  : 

"  In  view  of  the  possibility  that  Grant  may  fail  of  a  renomination, 
the  question  is  being  asked  here  with  a  good  deal  of  persistence,  '  Who 
will  be  nominated  at  Philadelphia  four  months  hence  ?  '  The  one  who 
stands  the  best  chance  in  that  contingency  is  Schuyler  Colfax,  and  I'll  tell 
you  why.  No  man  in  any  party  has  such  a  hold  on  the  popular  affection 
as  he,  and  he  is  the  only  man  upon  whom  the  party  can  unite.  There  is 
not  a  spot  on  his  record.  Never  was  there  even  a  charge  against  him. 
Never  has  he  done  an  improper  or  an  injudicious  thing.  While  in  Con- 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  369 

gress,  he  never  gave  a  vote  on  the  wrong  side  of  a  question.  Examine 
his  record  in  the  light  of  to-day  ;  it  is  consistent  and  straightforward. 
That  he  would  make  a  judicious,  popular,  safe  Executive,  nobody  can 
doubt." 

With  similar  testimonials  many  Republican  papers  were 
filled.  Colfax  wrote  an  article  for  the  Independent,  the  key- 
note of  which  was — No  bolting.  He  wrote  to  a  Grant 
mass-meeting  in  New  York,  urging  Republican  unity  ;  the 
party's  brilliant  triumphs  were  won  by  the  toleration  of 
minor  differences,  said  he.  To  a  delegation  from  North 
Carolina,  who  called  to  pay  their  respects,  he  commended 
the  Administration  of  President  Grant  ;  he  said  Grant 
deserved  to  be  re-elected  as  much  as  Lincoln  did  in  1864  ; 
the  impartial  verdict  of  history  on  the  two  men  would  be 
the  same.  To  Mr.  Sinclair  he  wrote  :  "I  suspect  you 
didn't  like  my  letter  to  the  Indiana  State  Journal.  But  it 
was  a  political  duty.  I  can't  consent  to  add  to  our  un- 
fortunate divisions  a  contest  all  over  the  United  States 
between  the  friends  of  the  President  and  Vice-President 
for  the  nomination.  I  love  my  party  too  well." 

He  wrote  Mr.  Sinclair  again  a  little  later  : 

"  I  must  acknowledge  the  compliment  of  the  splendid  dinner  you  got 
up  for  me,  and  I  was  very  glad  to  meet  those  I  did.  I  determined  to  avoid 
discussion  of  the  '  situation,'  but  you  saw  how  it  came  on.  I  hope  you 
did  not  think  I  spoke  too  zealously  when  I  had  to  speak  or  give  tacit 
assent  to  points  made  in  my  presence  against  Grant.  I  tried  to  be  re- 
spectful and  good-natured,  but  to  show  them  that  duty  to  the  party  re- 
quired me  to  do  what  I  did.  Now  the  Indiana  Convention  is  past  and 
has  done  all  that  could  be  asked,  I  shall  write  no  more  letters.  But  in 
point  of  mere  policy  alone  (although  real  friendship  had  far  more  to  do 
with  my  action),  my  position  is  just  what  it  should  be." 

So  he  had  been  in  the  enemy's  camp.  In  one  of  his 
editorial  homilies  when  a  mere  boy  he  asks  :  "  Have  you 
heard  your  friend  traduced  and  listened  in  silence  ?"  The 
enemy  invaded  his  camp  in  turn.  The  recalcitrant  editors 
were  not  seldom  guests  at  No.  7  Lafayette  Square.  "  It  is 
due  the  party  to  state  a  fact  within  our  knowledge,"  said 
the  Baltimore  American.  "  The  strongest  persuasions  and 
arguments  have  been  employed  to  induce  Mr.  Colfax  to 
consent  that  his  name  should  go  before  the  Philadelphia 


370  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Convention  for  nomination  to  the  Presidency.  He  has 
firmly  refused,  saying,  '  General  Grant  merits  the  confi- 
dence of  the  nation,  and  I  will  not  oppose  him/  ' 

There  was  cause  for  alarm.  Republican  defection  was 
a  new  thing.  It  had  not  then  been  shown  that  apostate 
leaders,  whatever  their  standing,  could  not,  as  did  Lucifer, 
lead  off  the  host.  Greeley  and  Sumner,  fathers  of  the 
party,  had  the  respect  and  confidence  of  Republicans  to  an 
extraordinary  degree  ;  and  the  four  great  Republican 
newspapers- — New  York  Tribune,  Chicago  Tribune,  Cincinnati 
Commercial,  Springfield  Republican — and  many  party  leaders 
of  the  second  or  third  rank  falling  off  with  them,  all  pro- 
fessedly out  of  dissatisfaction  with  President  Grant,  made 
the  prospect,  not  of  nominating,  but  of  electing  Grant, 
appear  somewhat  dubious.  A  slight  defection  in  the 
voters  would  lose  the  great  central  States,  and  with  them 
the  battle.  This  gave  character  to  the  demand  that  Colfax 
should  become  a  candidate  against  Grant. 

By  the  end  of  March  he  appears  to  have  seen  that  his 
disinterestedness  was  not  appreciated  by  the  real  party 
managers,  and  that  they,  in  fact,  contemplated  throwing 
him  overboard.  He  looked  at  it  philosophically,  however. 
Referring  to  his  February  letter  to  the  State  Convention  of 
Indiana,  he  writes  :  "I  doubt  whether  the  party  through- 
out the  United  States  realize  the  sacrifice  I  thus  made,  for 
the  movement  had  made  but  little  noise  outside  of  the 
State,  and  I  also  doubt  whether  many  other  public  men 
would  have  acted  as  I  did,  turning  their  back  on  so  flatter- 
ing a  temptation.  But  1  do  love  the  party  and  its  unity 
and  success  far  more  than  any  possible  advancement,  and 
am  willing  to  be  sacrificed  politically,  now  and  hereafter, 
if  thereby  the  harmony  and  continued  ascendency  of  the 
party  can  be  secured.  My  political  future  is  quite  uncer- 
tain. 1  will  not  work  and  electioneer  for  a  renomination, 
and  have  not ;  others  are  working  vigorously,  as  they  have 
a  right  to  do.  But  having  said  I  would  accept  a  renomi- 
nation if  the  party  thought  it  best  to  renominate  the  old. 
ticket  again,  I  shall  leave  it  to  the  convention,  unembar- 
rassed by  any  efforts  to  control  their  action.  If  they  deem 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  371 

it  best  to  put  on  a  new  man  with  General  Grant,  I  can  go 
on  the  retired  list,  as  you  know,  without  a  murmur  of 
regret."  Mr.  Bowles  wrote  him  on  the  5th  of  April  : 

"  I  really  wish  you  had  stayed  out  of  this  business  after  you  once  got 
out.  It  is  not  going  to  be  pleasant  for  you  or  your  friends.  I  find  a 
growing  conviction  that  the  people  who  are  running  the  '  machine  '  mean 
to  slaughter  you  at  Philadelphia.  I  cannot  think  they  will  be  so  stupid, 
yet  I  believe,  on  the  whole,  that  I  hope  they  will  do  it  !  The  party  is 
going  to  the  bad  under  such  leadership  as  [that  of]  Morton  and  Butler 
and  Grant.  If  they  cannot  be  thrown  off  by  resolution,  the  people  will 
come  in  and  throw  them  off  by  a  revolution  ;  not  this  year,  possibly,  but 
still  surely,  and  in  good  time." 

But  no  considerations  personal  to  himself  availed  to 
shake  the  Vice-President's  loyalty  to  his  conception  of  his 
duty;  and  the  "Liberal"  Republicans  were  unable  to 
convince  him  that  the  cause  now  and  always  so  near  his 
heart  could  be  served  by  his  allowing  himself  to  be  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  "reform"  revolt.  So  these  Mug- 
wumps of  1872  went  to  Cincinnati,  and  on  the  ist  of  May 
nominated  Horace  Greeley  himself  for  President.  This 
revived  the  demand  for  the  Vice-President's  candidacy  for 
first  place  on  the  regular  Republican  ticket,  and  now  it 
came  from  straight  Republicans,  who  believed  that  if  by 
any  means  Colfax  could  be  nominated  by  their  party,  the 
Greeley  ticket  would  collapse  of  itself.  Without  any 
doubt  it  would  have  collapsed  in  that  case,  at  any  time 
before  it  was  indorsed  by  the  Democracy.1  But  Colfax 
could  be  nominated  only  if  Grant  withdrew  ;  and  Grant 
had  been  denounced  and  vilified  until  he  desired  the  nom- 
ination as  a  vindication.  The  persistency  of  the  demand 
for  Colfax  in  the  interest  of  harmony  seems  finally  to  have 
produced  a  coolness  toward  him  at  the  White  House  ;  for 
it  was  given  out  that  if  the  President  had  any  choice 
among  the  aspirants  for  a  place  on  the  ticket  with  him,  it 
was  not  the  Vice-President.  Grant  may  not  have  author- 
ized this,  probably  did  not  ;  but  he  could  have  disowned 
it.  If  he  had  said  the  single  word  that  Colfax  would  have 

1.  Early  in  July  the  Democratic  National  Convention  met  at  Baltimore,  adopted  the 
Greeley  ticket,  and  indorsed  the  Greeley  platform. 


372  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

hastened  to  say  had  their  cases  been  reversed,  there  would 
have  remained  no  more  doubt  of  Colfax's  renomination 
than  of  his  own.  Without  being  actually  jealous,  Grant 
may  well  have  preferred  that  a  man  who  cast  so  huge  a 
shadow  should  stand  a  little  farther  from  the  throne.  Of 
jealousy,  there  is  nothing  in  his  history  to  show  that  he 
was  capable.  At  the  same  time,  he  never  hesitated  to  set 
aside  a  man  who  displeased  him,  if  it  was  within  his 
power  ;  and  he  did  it  with  the  impassiveness  of  fate. 

On  the  eve  of  the  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  Conven- 
tion, May  23d,  the  Vice-President  wrote  General  Hawley, 
of  Connecticut,  in  answer  to  the  suggestion  that  his  nom- 
ination for  President  might  restore  harmony,  that  he  did 
not  suppose  any  other  nomination  than  Grant's  to  be 
within  the  range  of  possibility.  "  Nearly  all  the  States 
have  declared  in  favor  of  his  nomination.  Unless  he 
declines,  therefore,  his  renomination  is  as  certain  as  the 
assembling  of  the  convention  ;  and  though  there  has  been 
a  good  deal  of  general  discussion  as  to  the  possibilities  of 
peril  in  our  present  political  situation,  I  do  not  think  the 
President  believes  there  is  any  danger  whatever  ;  and  he 
cannot  therefore  consider  that  his  withdrawal  would  be  in 
any  way  advisable.  I  could  not  present  my  name  in 
rivalry  or  opposition  to  his,  he  remaining  a  candidate,  as 
he  doubtless  will ;  for  it  would  be  attributed  to  an  ambition 
to  succeed  him,  which  I  never  had,  and  as  a  personal 
movement  tending  to  political  discords,  alienations,  and 
consequent  mischiefs.  Hence  I  have  resisted  all  appeals 
to  allow  my  name  to  be  used  in  antagonism  to  his,  even 
when  urged  so  strongly  last  February  by  life-long  friends 
and  influential  papers  in  my  own  State  ;  and  I  have  so 
replied,  when  I  have  replied  at  all,  to  numerous  letters 
from  many  parts  of  the  United  States." 

The  Vice-President  had  for  two  years  perceived,  and  had 
been  constantly  repeating,  that  President  Grant's  renom- 
ination was  inevitable.  His  Presidency  had  been  as  suc- 
cessful as  his  generalship.  Now,  as  in  the  year  of  battles, 
he  was  the  rock  on  which  the  people  rested.  The  Grant 
of  the  White  House  was  the  identical  Grant  of  the  Wilder- 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  373 

ness.  The  discontent  of  party  leaders  was  mainly  per- 
sonal. Whether  he  could  be  re-elected  might  be  question- 
able ;  that  he  would  be  renominated,  unless  he  should 
decline,  was  absolutely  certain.  His  renomination  was 
the  work  of  the  people. 

The  Republican  Convention  met  at  Philadelphia  on  the 
first  Monday  in  June,  nominated  Grant  for  President  in 
obedience  to  the  instructions  of  the  States,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  ballot  for  a  candidate  for  Vice-President.  As 
usual,  there  were  several  "  favorite  sons  ;"  there  were  but 
two  candidates — Schuyler  Colfax,  of  Indiana,  and  Henry 
Wilson,  of  Massachusetts.  There  was  an  idea  in  the  con- 
vention that  the  nomination  of  Wilson  would  be  a  good 
Roland  for  Sumner's  Oliver,  and  that  the  eight-hour  law 
was  in  some  way  Wilson's  thunder.  Certain  Washington 
newspaper  correspondents,  who  claimed  that  Colfax  had 
slighted  them  since  his  elevation  to  the  Vice-Presidency, 
worked  actively  and  efficiently  against  him. 

The  result,  however,  was  easily  in  the  hands  of  the 
President's  friends,  who  had  literally  forced  the  candidacy 
upon  Colfax,  and  they  gave  the  nomination  to  Wilson. 
The  Chairman  of  the  Indiana  delegation  wrote  Colfax  : 
"  In  my  own  mind  I  gave  up  the  contest  on  Tuesday,  when 
Cameron  failed  to  give  us  any  assurance  of  support."  In 
Lancaster  County,  Penn.,  the  only  place  in  Cameron's 
dominions  where  the  voters  were  consulted,  Colfax  received 
4698  votes  against  296  for  Wilson.1  Of  course  but  for 
Colfax' s  letter  of  1870,  there  would  have  been  no  candidate 
against  him.  He  would  have  been  renominated  by  general 
consent.  But  it  was  peculiarly  brutal,  after  forcing  him 
to  substantially  recall  that  letter,  to  allow  him  to  be  de- 
feated on  account  of  it.  It  is  true  that  his  power  was 
moral  only  ;  he  never  meddled  with  the  machinery  of  poli- 
tics ;  and  in  ordinary  times  the  political  machine  cares  as 
little  as  any  other  machine  for  moral  power. 

At  the  Chicago  Convention,  four  years  before,  with  324 
votes  necessary  to  a  choice,  he  had  but  186  on  the  fourth 
ballot.  On  this  occasion,  with  377  necessary  to  a  choice, 

1.  Dispatch  in  New  York  Tribune  of  March  12th,  1872. 


374  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

at  the  close  of  the  first  ballot  he  had  32 i-J-  to  Wilson's  360^, 
63  scattering.  With  no  exertion  on  his  part,  but  all  by 
friends,  who  had  made  him  a  candidate  against  his  wishes, 
this  was  not  a  bad  showing  of  strength.  At  that  moment 
the  result  depended  on  whether  a  Colfax  or  a  Wilson  man 
first  got  the  floor  to  change  the  scattering  votes  from  the 
"•  favorite  sons"  to  Colfax  or  to  Wilson.  A  Wilson  man 
having  been  made  chairman  expressly  for  this  contin- 
gency, Colfax  of  course  had  no  further  chance  of  win- 
ning. 

Mr.  E.  G.  D.  Holden,  of  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  wrote 
Colfax  in  1874:  "I  did  not  so  much  regret  your  defeat 
for  renomination  at  Philadelphia,  in  1872  (for  I  was  in 
that  vast  hall  at  the  time),  because  I  felt  that  the  people 
would  need  you  in  1876.  There  were  dozens  within  my 
hearing  that  day,  when  the  final  result  was  reached  and 
you  were  defeated  and  your  telegram  came,  who  said  :  '  It 
is  all  right ;  Colfax  shall  be  the  next  President  ;'  and  I 
pray  God  it  may  prove  true." 

The  Hon.  A.  W.  Tenny  said  at  Williamsburgh,  N.  Y., 
June  i2th,  1872  :  "  Though  Colfax  was  defeated  he  was 
not  dishonored.  The  great  heart  of  the  nation  throbs  as 
warmly  for  him  to-day  as  it  did  in  1868.  No  man  is  more 
beloved  by  the  American  people  than  he.  Firm  in  prin- 
ciple, courteous  in  manner,  steadfast  in  his  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  his  country  and  humanity,  he  has  made  his  life 
illustrious  by  duties  faithfully  performed,  and  by  his 
sublime  impersonation  of  those  rare  and  shining  qualities 
which  make  the  Christian  patriot  and  the  honest  man. 
And  as  we  now  take  our  farewell  of  him  for  the  campaign 
of  1872,  we  mingle  with  our  farewell  a  nation's  benedic- 
tion and  a  people's  love/' 

The  Chicago  Evening  Post  said  :  "In  the  great  virtues 
which  constitute  a  pure  and  high  statesmanship  Henry 
Wilson  is  one  of  the  noble  few  who  can  match  Schuyler 
Colfax.  That  he  does  this  is  the  highest  praise,  and  this 
we  cheerfully  accord  him." 

The  Vice-President  received  the  intelligence  of  his 
defeat  with  equanimity.  He  hastened  to  telegraph  his 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  375 

thanks  to  his  fi  lends  and  supporters,  his  adhesion  to  the 
ticket,  and  his  congratulations  to  his  successful  competitor. 
To  a  part  of  the  Indiana  delegation  who  called  on  him  in 
Washington,  and,  through  Judge  Denny,  paid  their  respects 
in  a  very  handsome  manner,  he  replied  that  he  accepted 
the  action  of  the  convention  without  regret,  and  should  go 
on  the  retired  list  with  no  unkind  feelings  toward  any  one. 
He  loved  far  better  than  political  honors  the  Republican 
Party,  whose  great  deeds  were  never  even  approached  by 
any  other  party  in  any  age  or  clime.  The  Republican 
Party  had  yet  much  to  do  before  disbanding.  As  always 
heretofore,  he  would  be  found  in  November  supporting  the 
ticket  and  platform.  The  same  day  he  wrote  Sinclair  : 

"  Glad  to  receive  your  kind  letter,  but  Philadelphia  has  not  left  a  sting 
behind  with  any  of  us.  We  go  Tuesday  or  Wednesday  to  our  quiet  West- 
ern home,  sure  of  more  happiness  and  rest.  Mrs.  Colfax  will  not  return 
here  next  winter,  and  I  shall  board,  and  not  keep  house.  Wasn't  it  odd 
that,  after  all,  Pennsylvania  should  have  defeated  me  ?  Some  of  these 
days  I  will  tell  you  and  Mrs.  S.  things  I  could  not  say  now  without  seem- 
ing sore-headed,  which  I  am  not.  But  it  is  no  secret  that  Cameron's 
demand  that  Pennsylvania  should  vote  against  me  caused  my  defeat,  and 
that  he  was  deaf  to  appeals  from  his  most  earnest  friends.  I  would  not 
make  any  appeals  to  him,  of  course,  or  to  any  one  else,  for  many  reasons, 
and  didn't  want  any  one  to  do  so. 

"  I  have  the  consciousness  of  having  done  my  duty  to  my  party  and 
its  organization  ;  of  resisting  every  temptation  from  my  State  and  else- 
where to  add  my  name  to  the  list  of  Vice-Presidents  who  drifted  into 
rivalry  to  their  chiefs  ;  and  of  having  given  up  my  expressed  desire  to  retire 
at  the  demand  of  many  influential  Republicans.  But  the  fact  that  I  had 
been  mentioned  as  one  that  could  unite  the  party  ;  who  had  not  quarrelled 
with  any  of  the  malcontent  Republicans  ;  and  who  had  privately  preached 
the  gospel  of  recognition  and  conciliation  as  a  political  necessity  to  keep 
three  millions  of  voters  united  and  victorious,  weakened  me  in  some 
quarters.  The  Administration  organ  here,  as  the  Republican  is  called, 
was  steadily  against  me  ;  but  I  do  not  suppose  the  President  took  any 
part,  one  way  or  the  other,  and  I  did  what  I  did  without  ever  asking  rec- 
iprocity. I  have  not  seen  him  for  a  week. 

"  As  you  say,  our  roads  must  diverge,  but  our  friendship  must  not  be 
impaired.  I  must  stand  by  the  regular  organization  for  many  reasons. 
I  have  been  honored  by  it  in  the  past  in  many  ways.  My  name  was  sub- 
mitted to  it,  and  I  have  no  taste  for  co-operation  with  Democrats.  But 
though  I  don't  expect  to  be  in  the  canvass,  I  cannot  say  a  word  against 
my  old  friend,  H.  G.,  deeply  as  I  regret  his  candidacy." 


376  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

This  letter  implies,  plainly  enough,  the  writer's  convic- 
tion that  he  had  been  entitled  to  a  reciprocity  of  friendly 
offices  from  the  President,  which  he  had  not  received,  and 
this  was  true.  At  the  same  time,  General  Grant  said  of 
him  to  some  Baltimore  friends  :  "  Previous  to  my  election 
to  the  Presidency  I  had  esteemed  Mr.  Colfax  very  highly ; 
but  I  have  learned  since  to  regard  him  as  a  man  who  can 
always  be  relied  on,  and  whose  judgment  is  never  warped 
by  prejudice  or  private  considerations.  He  is  probably  the 
first  Vice-President  who  in  our  history  has  been  awarded 
by  the  President  any  influence  in  executive  affairs." 

The  Vice-President  reached  home  by  way  of  Andover, 
O.,  about  the  2oth  of  June.  That  evening  a  mass-meeting 
of  thousands  of  his  townsmen  surrounded  his  residence  as 
a  serenading  party,  and  called  him  out.  He  made  a  char- 
acteristic speech,  acknowledging  his  indebtedness  to  his 
fellow-citizens  of  South  Bend  and  the  district  for  their 
whole-hearted  support  these  many  years.  He  glanced  over 
his  career,  from  his  founding  of  the  St.  Joseph  Valley 
Register  and  his  election  to  the  Constitutional  Convention 
of  his  State.  To  uplift  the  down-trodden,  to  secure  equal 
rights  and  protection  for  the  humblest,  had  been  his  one 
sole  aim  as  he  had  travelled  this  broad  land  over  and  over 
and  spoken  from  the  stump  twelve  hundred  times  in  half 
the  States  of  the  Union.  The  courts  of  the  State  had 
affirmed  his  position  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  ; 
and  to-day  not  a  voice  was  lifted  between  the  two  oceans 
against  the  principles  for  which  they  had  unitedly  con- 
tended. "  Looking  back  on  my  twenty-two  years  of 
public  service,"  said  he,  "  if  I  were  to  die  and  be  gathered 
to  my  fathers  to-night,  there  is  not  a  single  line  of  my 
record  that,  dying,  I  would  wish  to  blot  out — not  one." 
He  thought  it  a  fit  time  for  him  to  pass  to  the  retired  list, 
and  ended  by  repeating  with  emphasis  his  indorsement  of 
the  Philadelphia  ticket  and  platform  ;  his  devotion  to  prin- 
ciples, he  said,  not  being  affected  by  considerations  of 
public  office  and  public  dignity. 

His  family  physician  had  formally  warned  him  of  the 
danger  to  his  health,  and  even  life,  involved  in  his  making 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  377 

another  such  canvass  as  for  twenty  years  he  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  making.  Usage  did  not  require  this  on  the 
part  of  Presidents  or  Vice-Presidents.  He  had  done  it  for 
the  love  of  it  in  1870,  saying  then,  all  over  the  State,  that 
it  was  the  last  canvass  he  intended  ever  to  make.  He  had 
planned  for  the  summer  visits  with  his  wife  to  several 
places  in  the  high  North-west.  But  most  pressing  calls  for 
help,  from  Maine  to  Texas,  poured  in  on  him.  Mr.  Elaine 
wrote  from  Augusta,  Me.  :  "  Come  now  and  help  us.  I 
do  not  feel  like  taking  No  for  an  answer.  Do  come  !" 
Mr.  Cornell  wrote  from  New  York  :  "  Do  not  say  No  to 
us  ;  your  eloquent  voice  will  be  heard  and  heeded  by  our 
people."  The  whole  County  Committee  wrote  :  "  The 
cry  goes  up  from  Lake  County,  '  Oh,  that  Colfax  would 
come  ;  one  speech  from  him  would  work  our  deliver- 
ance !'  The  Hon.  Zachary  Chandler,  Chairman  of  the 
Union  Republican  Congressional  Executive  Committee, 
wrote  him,  July  26th  :  "  It  is  deemed  of  the  highest  im- 
portance, as,  in  fact,  an  essential  element  of  the  campaign 
in  its  present  aspects,  that  you  should  make  a  speech  at 
the  earliest  moment  possible,  at  any  place  and  under  any 
circumstances  you  choose,  so  that  the  same  may  be  pub- 
lished and  scattered  broadcast.  Your  present  silence  is 
working  great  harm  ;  a  timely  speech  will  do  us  great 
good.  Please  telegraph  a  reply." 

Soon  after  his  return  home  he  had  written  Colonel 
Foster  :  "  With  my  physicians'  warning,  and  having 
publicly  indorsed  the  new  ticket  at  Philadelphia,  at  Wash- 
ington, and  at  home,  I  must  be  allowed  to  go  back,  as  the 
National  Convention  did,  to  my  public  declarations  of 
1870,  so  well  understood  all  over  Indiana."  But  he 
answered  Chandler's  appeal,  August  3d,  on  introducing 
Governor  Morton  to  a  South  Bend  audience  ;  making  a 
brief,  stirring  speech,  which  was  printed  as  a  campaign 
document  and  circulated  by  the  tens  of  thousands.  No 
doubt  it  was  a  strong  element  in  stemming  and  turning 
the  political  tide,  which  had  thus  far  set  toward  Greeley 
with  great  force  and  volume. 

On  the  ist  of  August  he  writes  Mrs.  Sinclair  :  "  Mother 


378  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

has  been  much  more  dangerously  ill  since  we  came  back 
from  Washington  than  ever  before.  She  is  very  weak,  and 
we  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  her  life  cannot  be 
long.  We  have  given  up  all  of  our  proposed  summer  visit- 
ing, and  have  not  been  away  a  night  from  home."  Again, 
August  yth,  after  saying  that  his  mother  was  apparently 
somewhat  better  :  "  As  I  wrote  you,  I  stand  by  the  regular 
ticket,  for  it  is  a  political  and  personal  duty,  having  sub- 
mitted my  name  to  the  Philadelphia  Convention,  to  vote 
exactly  as  if  I  had  been  nominated  instead  of  defeated 
there.  Nor  have  I  allowed  a  syllable  of  complaint  against 
any  one  to  fall  from  my  lips.  Whether  all  I  did  for  the 
unity  of  the  party  and  to  maintain  the  utmost  harmony 
between  the  two  highest  officers  of  the  Government  was 
reciprocated  or  not,  does  not  affect  my  course  in  the 
slightest." 

He  had  declined  to  go  into  the  active  stump-speaking 
canvass,  he  continued,  but  "  at  the  request  of  our  Repub- 
licans I  presided  and  also  spoke  at  Senator  Morton's  meet- 
ing here  last  Saturday.  I  hope  you  read  my  speech  and 
saw  that  I  said  nothing  against  your  cousin  [Greeley],  ex- 
cept that  he  and  I,  after  a  lifetime  of  personal  friendship, 
should  vote  this  year  different  tickets.  I  have  had  many 
acts  of  friendship  from  him,  and  no  political  obligation  re- 
quires me  to  say  any  unkind  word  of  him  ;  and  I  would 
not  do  it  if  it  did,  notwithstanding  our  pathways  of  duty  lie 
in  opposite  directions.  So  you  must  give  me  one  credit 
mark,  not  a  very  long  one,  for  whoever  does  only  his  duty 
is  not  entitled  to  a  very  long  one." 

It  is  plain  that  Colfax  was  no  politician,  after  all.  A 
man  who  would  neglect  a  political  duty  out  of  regard  for 
his  personal  friend,  and  who  was  as  faithful  to  duty  as  the 
steel  to  the  magnet,  must  have  mistaken  his  vocation  when 
he  engaged  in  politics. 

On  the  loth  of  August  Henry  Wilson  was  in  South 
Bend  to  speak.  Colfax' s  mother  was  dying,  but  the  ruth- 
lessness  of  politics  compelled  her  to  send  him  away  from 
her  side  to  Wilson's  meeting.  "  Schuyler,  you  must  go 
there,"  she  said.  "  If  you  do  not,  you  know  what  they 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  379 

will  say.  No  matter  about  me,  I  wish  you  to  go."  Al- 
ways obedient  to  his  mother,  he  went  to  the  meeting,  in- 
troduced Wilson  in  a  generous  and  manly  speech,  and  has- 
tened back,  his  mother  living  less  than  twenty  hours  after- 
ward. 

Mrs.  Matthews  died  of  cancer  Sunday  afternoon,  August 
nth,  1872,  at  half-past  four  o'clock.  It  was  four  years 
since  the  dread  disease  had  declared  itself  ;  for  four  years 
the  Angel  of  Death  had  visibly  hovered  over  the  Vice- 
President's  home.  In  the  effort  to  save  Mrs.  Matthews, 
every  remedy  known  to  science  was  tested.  Temporary 
relief,  possibly  some  postponement  of  the  inevitable  end, 
was  all  that  was  accomplished  by  this  and  by  the  most  as- 
siduous and  tender  care  and  nursing.  Her  son  wrote  Mrs. 
Sinclair,  August  26th  : 

"  Your  kind  letter  of  the  I4th  brought  sympathy  to  all  our  stricken 
household,  and  it  was  needed,  for  our  house  is  very  lonely  and  desolate  ; 
far  more  than  we  imagined  it  could  be  before  our  dear  sufferer  passed 
away.  She  commenced  failing  steadily  in  June,  and  day  by  day  grew 
worse  and  weaker.  We  tried  to  imagine  that  we  would  realize  that  God's 
will  was  wiser  than  ours,  ending  her  years  of  agony,  and  find  consolation 
in  that  beautiful  idea  that  life  is  not  really  life  till  it  is  baptized  in  death. 
But  since  she  has  gone  we  cannot  feel  reconciled  to  her  [our]  loss.  Mr. 
Matthews  is  overwhelmed  with  grief,  and  wanders  around  inconsolable. 
I  have  insisted  that  he  shall  go  and  visit  his  daughters  in  Iowa,  Colorado, 
and  Utah  till  November  (when  we  go  to  Washington)  to  escape  the  har- 
rowing reminiscences  of  anguish  and  care  and  death  about  this  house. 
He  seems  lost,  now  that  the  strain  on  his  mental  and  physical  nature  has 
ceased,  and  the  daily,  nightly,  and  hourly  war  with  the  enemy  that  robbed 
us  of  her  is  over. 

"  The  terribly  sultry  weather  hastened  her  departure.  For  three 
weeks — from  the  time  she  kept  her  room  till  her  death — she  was  fanned 
night  and  day,  mainly  by  Mr.  Matthews,  as  he  could  not  leave  her,  and 
she  could  not  bear  him  out  of  her  sight.  Fortunately,  in  her  last  days 
she  lost  all  dread  of  death  ;  her  hopes  as  to  the  future  were  bright,  and 
the  agonizing  pain  left  her  ;  so  that  she  passed  away  like  one  free  from 
all  pain.  She  looked  beautiful  in  her  coffin,  robed  as  a  bride  ;  brighter 
and  younger-looking  than  when  she  presided  for  me  in  Washington  be- 
fore this  terrible  malady  attacked  her. 

"  She  was  conscious,  and  recognized  us  all  (my  sisters  Carrie  and 
Mary  had  come  on)  lovingly  to  the  end.  Indeed,  after  her  pulse  had 
stopped  and  her  extremities  were  cold,  in  her  last  breath,  when  her  de- 
voted husband  (and  there  never  was  so  devoted  a  husband  and  nurse) 


380  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

was  bidding  her  a  weeping  farewell,  she  fixed  her  mouth,  as  she  had  so 
often  during  the  day,  to  kiss  him,  and  then  passed  away. 

"  Dear  mother  !  you  know  how  I  loved  her  and  how  she  loved  me. 
All  I  am  I  owe  to  her  ;  and  amid  our  sorrows  I  feel  happy  that  the 
last  nine  years  of  her  life  she  was  with  me,  and  enjoyed  so  many  happy 
hours  in  our  family.  But  for  the  cancer  she  would  probably  have  out- 
lived me." 

Mrs.  Matthews  was  a  leader  in  society,  whether  in  the 
pioneer  settlements  of  Northern  Indiana  or  in  the  social 
circles  of  the  National  Capital.  Perhaps  she  was  best 
known  as  the  presiding  genius  at  the  home  and  at  the  re- 
ceptions of  her  son  while  he  was  Speaker  of  the  House. 
An  observer  in  those  times  declares  :  "  Mrs.  Matthews, 
as  a  woman,  is  precisely  what  her  son  is  as  a  man  :  sun- 
shiny, kindly,  unpretentious  ;  unspoiled  by  personal  suc- 
cess or  popular  adulation.  Amid  fashionable  life,  she  pre- 
serves intact  the  simplest  tastes,  the  most  genial  manners, 
the  gentlest  affections."  Hospitable  in  feeling,  genial  in 
manner,  kind  in  heart,  brilliant  in  conversation,  noble  in 
all  her  nature,  she  had  her  full  share  in  making  the  Speak- 
er's receptions  the  most  popular  gatherings  of  the  kind, 
perhaps,  ever  known  in  Washington.1  Many  yet  survive 
in  all  parts  of  the  land  who  knew  her  in  those  days,  and 
who  will  never  forget  her  gracious  ways.  Her  memory  is 
also  still  tenderly  cherished  by  her  old-time  friends,  yearly 
growing  fewer,  in  Northern  Indiana,  where  she  was  always 
the  helpful  neighbor,  the  light  and  life  of  the  social  circle, 
and  active  from  her  first  arrival  in  promoting  the  interests 
of  religion  and  education. 

After  his  mother's  death  the  Vice- President's  wife  was 
seriously  ill  until  the  middle  of  October.  He  attended  all 
the  political  meetings  at  South  Bend,  however,  presiding, 

1.  "Speaker  Coif  ax's  receptions,"  wrote  an  observer  in  1868,  "are  unlike  all  others 
in  some  respects.  No  prominent  man  in  Washington  receives  his  thousands  of  admirers, 
and  says  to  them  after  an  introduction : '  This  is  my  mother. '  She  stands  by  his  side,  with 
no  one  to  separate  them,  bearing  a  strong  personal  resemblance  to  him,  while  she  is  only 
seventeen  years  his  senior.  At  what  a  tender  age  her  love  commenced  for  this  boy 
Schuyler — nobody  else's  boy,  though  he  were  President  !  She  has  put  on  her  chameleon 
silk  and  the  cap  with  blue  ribbons  to  receive  the  multitude  that  flock  in  masses  to  do 
homage  to  her  son.  Pride  half  slumbers  in  her  bosom,  but  love  is  vigilant  and  wide- 
awake. There  is  no  metallic  impression  on  her  countenance— a  genuine  heartfelt  welcome 
is  extended  to  all  who  come  to  pay  their  respects  to  her  idol.  So  the  people  come  and 
go,  and  wonder  why  Speaker  Colfax's  receptions  are  unlike  all  others." 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  381 

introducing  the  speakers,  and  bearing  his  own  testimony 
in  brief  speeches,  which  were  given  all  the  currency  pos- 
sible by  the  Associated  Press.  In  the  heat  of  the  State 
canvass,  while  his  home  was  the  abode  of  sickness,  suffer- 
ing, and  death,  he  addressed  three  mass-meetings  in  as 
many  counties,  his  voice  thus  reaching  thirty  thousand 
people. 

He  made  a  dozen  speeches  afterward  to  great  gather- 
ings, the  last  of  them  among  his  best.  A  Cincinnati  re- 
porter describes  his  meeting  at  Kokomo,  November  ist  : 

"  Most  of  the  time  it  was  like  a  religious  meeting  under  intense  ex- 
citement. The  fixed  attitude  of  many  of  the  listeners  was  an  almost 
painful  study.  The  entire  attention  of  the  whole  audience  was  of  a 
peculiar  character.  There  were  no  cheers,  but  there  was  the  closest  sym- 
pathy with  the  speaker  and  the  most  profound  attention.  There  were 
laughter  and  mirth,  and  any  number  of  fervent  ejaculations  and  responses, 
but  no  outbursts  of  applause,  such  as  find  vent  in  huzzas. 

"  While  his  speech  was  a  gallant  defence  of  Grant's  Administration,  it 
did  not  contain  a  word  of  personal  or  party  abuse.  It  was  marked  by  a 
triumphant  air,  as  if  the  speaker  were  assured  of  success.  The  effect 
upon  the  audience  was  like  sunshine.  '  I  see  victory  in  your  faces,'  he 
said,  and  every  face  was  positively  beaming.  In  speaking,  he  displayed 
the  most  astonishing  versatility  of  expression.  He  piled  adjective  upon 
adjective  just  as  he  did  line  upon  line,  precept  on  precept,  analogy  upon 
analogy.  His  illustrations  were  drawn  from  every  source,  and  were  very 
effective." 

The  Vice-President  dealt  with  principles  and  policies  ; 
he  defended  without  attacking  ;  built  up  without  pulling 
down  ;  and  while  speaking  more  than  all  his  predecessors  in 
the  Vice-Presidential  office  put  together,  he  made  it  seem, 
from  the  high  plane  on  which  he  kept  the  argument,  rather 
a  gracious  thing  for  a  Vice-President  to  do.  To  his  old 
constituents  in  Indiana  and  to  his  near  neighbors  in  Mich- 
igan, however,-  he  was  Schuyler  Colfax.  No  office  could 
confer  additional  dignity  on  the  man,  nor  could  he  divest 
himself  of  aught  of  his  real  belongings  in  laying  aside  the 
robes  of  office. 

The  canvass  was  largely  a  fight  between  old  political 
friends,  now  estranged,  and  was  bitter  and  unscrupulous 
to  the  last  degree.  About  the  ist  of  September  charges 
of  bribery  and  corruption  in  connection  with  the  Union 


382  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Pacific  Railroad  and  its  construction  company,  the  Credit 
Mobilier  of  America,  were  cast  into  the  arena.  A  few 
years  previously  Henry  S.  McComb,  of  Delaware,  had  in- 
stituted a  suit  in  a  Pennsylvania  court  against  Oakes  Ames 
and  others,  stockholders  in  the  Credit  Mobilier  of  America, 
to  force  them  to  an  accounting  for  certain  shares  of  the 
stock  and  its  accretions,  alleged  by  McComb  to  be  wrong- 
fully withheld,  and,  on  the  strength  of  letters  of  Oakes 
Ames  to  him,  "  to  have  been  distributed  to  members  of 
Congress  without  consideration,  for  corrupt  and  fraudulent 
purposes/'  Mr.  McComb's  testimony  in  this  suit,  inclu- 
sive of  copies  of  Ames's  letters  to  him,  was  made  public 
through  the  New  York  press.  The  apportionment  of  the 
stock  in  Ames's  letters  was  by  States,  but  on  the  back  of 
an  envelope  in  McComb's  possession  he  had  pencilled,  he 
said  from  Ames's  reading,  the  names  of  the  dozen  Con- 
gressmen, with  the  amounts,  to  whom  shares  had  been 
allotted.  In  this  list  twenty  shares  were  assigned  to  Mr. 
Colfax.  McComb's  testimony  proved  a  rich  mine  of  cam- 
paign material  for  the  Greeley  press,  out  of  which  were 
shaped  all  forms  of  calumny,  in  accordance  with  the  taste 
and  capacity  in  that  line  of  each  particular  artist.1 

It  was  alleged,  for  example,  that  by  the  distribution  of 
this  stock  Ames  carried  through  Congress  a  scandalous 
proposition,  by  which  the  Government  abandoned  its  first 
mortgage  on  the  road,  and  allowed  the  bonds  of  the  com- 
pany to  take  precedence  ;  and  that  by  the  aid  of  these 
bribed  men,  Ames  had  swindled  the  Government  out  of 
the  whole  gross  sum  for  the  mail  service,  while  refusing  to 
pay  the  interest  on  the  Government  bonds,  as  it  accrued. 

On  the  25th  day  of  September,  at  a  political  meeting  in 
South  Bend,  urged  by  his  political  friends,  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent  took  occasion  to  say  something  about  this.  "  Not  to 
put  myself  on  the  defensive — far  from  it,"  he  said  ;  "  but 

1.  For  example,  a  Baltimore  paper  charged  that  fourteen  gentlemen,  whom  it  named, 
had  received  twenty-seven  thousand  shares  of  this  stock,  worth  in  the  aggregate  seven 
million  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars.  "This, "said  the  paper,  "is  a  portion  of  the 
enormous  bribery  and  corruption  used  to  carry  through  the  most  monstrous  fraud  of 
the  age— a  fraud  by  which  the  American  people  have  been  robbed  of  thousands  of 
millions  of  dollars  in  money  and  bonds." 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  383 

that  we  may  see  out  of  what  worthless  stuff  campaign 
charges  are  manufactured."  There  never  was  an  hour  in 
his  public  life,  he  continued,  that  he  would  not  have  will- 
ingly left  any  charge  affecting  his  honesty  4<  to  a  jury  of 
my  political  opponents  here.  No  man  ever  dared  to  make 
me  a  dishonest  proposition."  He  valued  the  opinion  of 
no  one  who,  knowing  him,  believed  that  his  ownership  in 
anything  could  swerve  him  one  hair's  breadth  from  his 
convictions  of  duty. 

He  spoke  of  his  overland  journey  in  1865,  with  rep- 
resentatives of  the  three  influential  newspapers  now  giving 
currency  to  these  infamous  charges,  and  his  many  speeches, 
addresses,  and  lectures  afterward,  all  for  the  purpose  of 
directing  attention  to  the  necessity,  feasibility,  and  great 
promise  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  and  of  securing  its  speedy 
construction,  as  evidence  "  that  bribing  me  to  support 
Pacific  Railroad  interests  is  just  as  incredible  as  that  I 
should  need  to  be  bribed  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket." 
These  labors  had  the  desired  effect.  "  Since  we  went  over 
the  plains,"  he  read  from  the  dedication  of  Bowles's 
"Across  the  Continent,"  dated  December  25th,  1865, 
"  labor  upon  the  eastern  end  of  this  road  has  had  a  new 
impetus  ;  new  elements  of  capital  and  enterprise  have  be- 
come engaged." 

"  But  these  very  capitalists,"  he  went  on,  "  have  been 
denounced  ever  since  by  many  papers  and  politicians  as 
no  better  than  swindlers,  for  accepting  what  had  been  prof- 
fered and  reproffered  by  Congress,  with  the  heartiest  pop- 
ular indorsement,  and  finally  risking  their  millions,  where 
others  would  not  hazard  their  dollars."  Mr.  Ames,  he 
said,  did  not  invest  a  dollar  in  the  enterprise  until  after 
he  and  these  newspaper  men  had  appealed  to  Boards  of 
Trade  and  capitalists  to  subscribe  "  the  hundred  millions 
of  money  to  create  a  new  republic — to  marry  to  the  nation 
of  the  Atlantic  an  equal  if  not  greater  nation  of  the 
Pacific,"  and  these  appeals  had  been  published;  until 
more  than  a  year,  too,  after  this  enactment  by  Congress 
in  1864.  The  railroad  had  never  received  or  claimed 
but  the  half  of  the  gross  sum  for  carrying  the  mails  ;  the 


384  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

other  half  had  always  been  retained  and  applied  on  the 
interest  of  the  bonds.  Secretary  Boutwell  undertook,  ir 
1870,  to  retain  the  entire  compensation  for  this  service,  bu 
the  Senate  decided  that  the  charter  did  not  authorize  it. 

"  These  charges,"  he  continued,  "  are  very  grave,  and 
if  true  would  blast  forever  the  characters  of  men  capable 
of  such  conduct,  and  give  color  and  confirmation  to  the 
original  charges  of  bribery  and  corruption.  All  of  them 
are  false,  and  known  to  be  false  by  those  who  made  them. 
Day  after  day  they  have  sought  to  make  the  people  of  the 
United  States  suspect  a  number  of  their  prominent  public 
men,  and  the  builders  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  gen- 
erally, [of  being]  a  band  of  thieves,  scoundrels,  and  swin- 
dlers, and  they  have  demanded  that  those  thus  assailed 
'  should  be  heard  from.'  Well,  they  have  heard  now  a 
calm,  dispassionate  statement  from  one  of  those  whom  one 
of  the  Tribunes  stigmatized  as  '  the  twelve  apostles  who  sold 
out  to  the  Credit  Mobilier  at  twenty  thousand  dollars 
apiece.'" 

In  the  course  of  the  speech,  he  said  in  substance  that  he 
had  never  owned  any  stock  that  he  did  not  pay  for  ;  that 
he  claimed  the  same  right  as  any  other  man  to  purchase 
stock  in  the  Credit  Mobilier,  or  any  corporation  or  prop- 
erty ;  that  neither  Oakes  Ames  nor  anybody  else  had  ever 
given  or  offered  to  give  him  Credit  Mobilier  or  any  other 
railroad  stock  ;  and  that  he  had  never  received  a  farthing 
of  the  fabulous  dividends  "  you  have  read  about  the  past 
month." 

In  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  this  speech  was 
charged  against  the  Vice-President  as  intentionally  mis- 
leading, because  it  purported  to  make  a  personal  explana- 
tion, and  did  not  make  it  a  full  one.  By  making  it  seem 
as  if  the  personal  explanation  was  the  gist  instead  of  the 
merest  incident  of  the  speech,  some  color  was  given  the 
charge.  The  speech  exploded  the  current  charges  of 
Credit  Mobilier  bribery  and  corruption  in  connection  with 
Pacific  Railroad  legislation,  and  thereby  defeated  the 
Greeley  coalition.  This  was  the  Vice-President's  offence. 
"Nor  was  the  Republican  prepared/'  said  his  old  friend 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  385 

Bowles,  "  to  see  a  Christian  statesman,  a  light  of  the  evan- 
gelical platform,  a  pillar  of  the  Sunday-school,  and  a  pro- 
fessed teacher  and  exponent  of  the  loftiest  morality,  inter- 
posing his  own  good  name  and  good  record  as  a  screen  be- 
tween a  self-convicted  malefactor  and  justice  ;"  a  sneer 
which  betrays  whom  the  speech  defended.  Read,  "  as  a 
screen  between  Grant  and  defeat,"  or,  "  as  a  screen  be- 
tween Greeley  and  success,"  and  one  has  the  secret  of  the 
malignity  with  which  the  Greeley  journals  denounced  the 
Vice-President  the  ensuing  winter,  and  with  which  some 
of  them  pursued  him  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Nothing  could  better  indicate  his  standing  in  his  own 
State  at  this  time,  and  the  tone  of  mind  which  had  become 
second  nature  to  him,  than  the  attentions  paid  him  by 
both  Houses  of  the  Legislature  on  his  visiting  Indianapolis, 
in  November,  and  the  tenor  of  his  speeches  to  them.  He 
dwelt  briefly  on  the  personal  and  material  changes  time  had 
brought  since  his  reportorial  days  ;  on  the  illustrious 
deeds  of  Indiana's  sons  on  land  and  sea  ;  on  the  future 
possibilities  of  the  State.  Passing  to  the  responsibilities  of 
the  office  of  legislator,  he  discoursed  like  a  seer  of  the 
olden  time.  To  so  act  as  to  promote  always  the  public 
welfare,  to  rise  above  transient  political  divisions,  and  to 
endeavor  to  make  the  State  nobler  among  her  sister  States, 
truer  to  the  right,  was  the  duty  of  her  legislators.  Rules 
had  been  written  by  the  finger  of  Inspiration  itself  to  guide 
them.  "  There  shall  be  but  one  law  for  him  that  is  born 
among  you  and  for  the  stranger  ;"  and  "  whatsoever  ye 
would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  unto 
them."  Whatever  was  in  accordance  with  these  principles 
would  be  right  ;  it  would  stand  on  their  statute-books  to 
the  honor  of  the  State  and  of  her  legislators  ;  and  the 
shadow  on  the  dial  which  marked  the  future  progress  and 
glory  of  such  a  State  would  never  go  backward. 

It  was  rumored  in  October  that  the  New  York  Tribune 
Association  would  offer  the  Vice-President  its  vacant  edi- 
torial chair,  after  the  Presidential  election,  and  reverse  the 
fatal  course  of  the  paper,  with  the  view  of  saving  the  sub- 
scriptions to  its  weekly  edition,  mainly  expiring  at  that 


386  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

season,  and  of  recovering,  if  possible,  its  old  receipts,  fallen 
off  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  dollars  a  day,  on  account  of 
the  aberration  of  its  chief.  In  November  Mr.  Sinclair, 
publisher  and  part  owner,  wrote  Mr.  Colfax  :  "  Were  the 
editorship  of  the  Tribune  offered  you,  would  you  feel  in- 
clined to  accept  it  ;  and  in  such  case  could  you  have  friends 
with  yourself  to  secure  a  controlling  interest  ?  The  con- 
cern is  richly  worth  one  million  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  but  I  suppose  one  million  dollars  would 
be  about  the  basis."  The  Vice-President  replied  from 
South  Bend,  November  23d  :  "  There  are  a  hundred  ques- 
tions to  be  asked  before  I  could  commence  considering 
your  inquiry.  I  have  taken  stock  in  three  of  our  manufac- 
tories, and  expect  to  settle  down  here  quietly,  and  next 
summer  they  want  me  to  put  through  a  new  railroad  in  my 
spare  time.  If  you  wish  an  answer  now,  it  could  not  be 
yes.  Mrs.  C.  is  at  Andover,  and  I  am  sure  would  not  say 
yes.  She  has  the  veto  in  our  family." 

December  ist  he  wrote  Sinclair  again  from  Washington  : 

"  I  arrived  here  last  night,  hearing  on  the  road  from  Andover  the  sad 
news  of  the  last  days  and  death  of  Mr.  Greeley.  You  can  imagine  how  it 
all  shocked  me.  I  can  understand,  now,  the  meaning  of  your  letter, 
which  I  did  not  at  the  time.  Frankly,  Mrs.  Colfax  is  not  willing  for  me 
to  give  up  my  plans  of  rest  and  travel  and  quiet  business,  for  she  thinks 
she  will  own  more  of  me  than  if  I  keep  in  the  maelstrom  of  politics.  You 
know,  of  course,  I  could  have  been  Congressman-at-large  from  Indiana, 
and  it  was  hard  work  to  refuse  my  name.  But  we  both  thought  it  was 
a  good  time  to  rest  and  seek  to  enjoy  life. 

"  You,  perhaps,  remember  that  [Greeley's]  Indianapolis  speech,  which 
it  was  said  was  aimed  for  me  ;  but  it  did  not  at  the  time  cause  me  to  for- 
get H.  G.'s  many  friendly  words  and  deeds  in  the  past  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ;  and  before  his  open  grave  I  remember  only  his  earnest  friendship 
and  his  glorious  leadership  in  so  many  contests  of  the  olden  time.  I  re- 
joice now  that  in  all  the  twenty  speeches  I  made  this  year,  I  never  ut- 
tered an  unkind  word  against  him,  not  a  criticism,  even,  not  a  syllable 
that  could  in  any  way  have  pained  him. 

"  How  sad  Mrs.  Sinclair  must  be  !  I  know  how  she  loved  and  ven- 
erated her  cousin,  how  proud  she  was  of  his  history  and  his  fame,  as 
well  she  might  be.  Please  express  to  her  my  sincerest  sympathies.  I 
have  passed  through  deep  waters  of  affliction  myself,  but  I  do  believe  that 
death  is  but  the  commencement  of  real  life — this  world  but  the  vestibule 
to  a  magnificent  temple  beyond." 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  387 

After  the  election,  which  went  overwhelmingly  Repub- 
lican, Mr.  Greeley  had  resumed  his  editorial  post  with  a 
characteristically  manly  card.  On  the  ist  of  December  he 
died.  Never  was  there  a  more  pathetic  ending  to  a  great 
life.1  In  the  procession  to  the  grave,  which  was  a  noble 
one,  Colfax,  Grant,  and  Henry  Wilson  rode  in  the  same 
carriage.  Horace  Greeley  had  no  sincerer  mourner  in 
death,  as  in  life  he  had  no  warmer  friend  than  Schuyler 
Colfax.  If  the  latter  had  yielded  to  his  dead  friend's  ap- 
peals to  contest  the  nomination  with  Grant,  Greeley  would 
not  himself  have  become  a  candidate,  have  worn  himself 
out  in  the  canvass,  and  died  of  chagrin  at  its  result.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  he  had  heeded  Colfax' s  warnings  against 
placing  himself  in  antagonism  to  the  party  he  had  so 
largely  created,  that  party  would  not  have  been  forced  to 
defeat  him  and  end  his  life.  Greeley  was  wrong  in  not 
yielding  to  Colfax  ;  Colfax  was  right  in  not  yielding  to 
Greeley. 

The  Baltimore  American  of  December  pth,  1872,  said  : 

"  Undoubtedly,  there  is  no  man  in  the  country  who  could  take  the 
vacant  chair  of  Mr.  Greeley  with  more  certainty  of  restoring  that  great 
journal  to  its  former  influence  and  importance  than  Mr.  Colfax.  Like 
Mr.  Greeley,  he  is  the  next  '  best-known  man  in  the  United  States.'  He 
has  all  those  personal  elements  about  him  which  distinguished  Mr. 
Greeley  as  a  man  of  the  people.  He  has  fought  the  battles  of  the  Repub- 
lican Party  with  all  the  unflinching  fearlessness  of  Mr.  Greeley,  and  was 
the  foremost  of  those  who  labored  with  him  in  its  formation  and  in  con- 
tributing to  its  success.  Mr.  Greeley 's  '  faith  in  right,  his  hatred  of 
wrong,  his  anxiety  to  better  the  condition  of  the  poor,  his  sympathy  with 
the  oppressed,  his  efforts  to  give  strength  to  the  struggling,  and  his  un- 
ceasing labors  to  promote  the  moral  and  material  advancement  of  his 
country/  always  met  with  earnest  and  active  co-operation  from  Mr.  Col- 
fax. He  has  acted  with  Mr.  Greeley  heartily  in  everything  but  his  '  mis- 
takes,' and  he  was  through  life  nearer  to  his  inmost  heart  than  any  other 
living  man.  There  is  no  man  more  capable  of  succeeding  Mr.  Greeley, 

1.  "  We  have  been  terribly  beaten,"  he  writes  his  friend  Colonel  Tappan,  of  New 
Hampshire.  "  I  was  the  worst  beaten  man  who  ever  ran  for  the  high  office.  And  I  have 
been  assailed  so  bitterly,  that  I  hardly  knew  whether  I  was  running  for  President  or  the 
Penitentiary.  In  the  darkest  hour  my  suffering  wife  left  me,  none  too  soon,  for  she  had 
suffered  too  deeply  and  too  long.  I  laid  her  in  the  ground  with  hard,  dry  eyes.  Well,  I 
am  used  up.  I  cannot  see  before  me.  I  have  slept  little  for  weeks,  and  my  eyes  are  still 
hard  to  close,  while  they  soon  open  again.  But  no  more  of  this.  You  knew,  as  I  did,  that  j 
we  must  stop  fighting  the  rebels  some  time.  But  it  is  now  settled  that  we  never  shall." 


388  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

or  whose  characteristics  are  more  in  accord  with  the  best  days  of  the 
great  journalist." 

Early  in  December  Colfax  went  to  New  York,  and  he 
and  Sinclair  informally  talked  over  the  terms,  each  taking 
care  hot  to  finally  commit  himself.  From  their  correspond- 
ence it  appears  that  Colfax  was  to  have  "  exactly  the 
same  editorial  control  that  Mr.  Greeley  had.  It  must  be 
with  substantial  unanimity  on  the  part  of  the  stockholders. 
I  am  a  man  of  strong  convictions  as  to  principles  and  poli- 
cies, but  want  peace  and  not  irritation  in  business  and 
domestic  matters."  The  contract  was  to  cover  two  years, 
at  fifteen  thousand  dollars  a  year,  with  a  bonus  of  five 
thousand  dollars  for  expense  of  moving  from  South  Bend 
to  New  York.  Colfax  was  to  have  twelve  shares  of  Tribune 
stock  at  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  the  same  to  be  paid 
for  within  a  year,  or  sooner  if  possible.  He  was  to  buy 
one  share  as  soon  as  he  could  sell  something  else,  get 
friends  to  carry  two  shares  for  him  till  he  could  pay  for 
them,  and  have  friends  of  his  take  the  other  nine  shares. 
Sinclair  thinks  the  price  too  low,  but  says  ;  "  I  shall  yield 
to  you  on  that  point.  Were  it  not  for  my  house-building 
and  so  forth,  I  would  insist  that  other  parties  than  myself 
should  sell." 

Mr.  Colfax  replies  that  he  is  trying  to  raise  the  money. 
"  It  is  quite  a  drawback  to  me  that  I  am  not  rich,  but  not 
a  cent  of  all  I  have  can  I  trace  to  salaries  or  anything  else 
in  public  life.  I  believe  I  told  you  that  I  had  an  offer 
from  Bowen  of  ten  thousand  dollars  per  year  as  editor  of 
the  Independent,  a  weekly,  and  light  work.  I  was  asked  by 
Crounse,  of  the  New  York  Times,  if  I  would  consider  any 
other  proposition.  I  told  him  I  could  not,  honorably,  as 
matters  now  stand,  no  matter  how  liberal  it  might  be. 
The  offer  of  twelve  thousand  dollars  was  a  business  one  at 
Rondout,  N.  Y."  He  had  still  another  proposition  to  go 
into  journalism,  but  declined  to  consider  it. 

On  the  i5th  Colfax  writes  his  wife  :  "  Orton  buys  to- 
morrow, in  all  probability,  fifty-one  shares,  a  controlling 
interest,  for  five  hundred  and  ten  thousand  dollars,  of  Sin- 
clair [part  of  his]  and  others  !  He  wants  me  to  be  editor, 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  389 

but  I  must  find  out  who  is  the  moneyed  man  behind  him. 
If  some  railroad  king,  and  he  wants  it  for  railroad  inter- 
ests, I  will  not  go  in." 

Mr.  William  M.  Orton  completed  the  purchase  on  the 
1 6th,  went  to  Washington  the  next  day,  and  persuaded 
Colfax  to  consent.  The  Vice-President  wrote  his  salutatory 
for  the  Weekly  Tribune,  to  be  issued  the  next  morning,  the 
i8th,  and  sent  his  secretary,  Mr.  Todd,  to  New  York  with 
it,  subject  to  telegraphic  orders  up  to  the  time  of  going  to 
press.  He  telegraphed  his  wife  :  "  Orton  and  I  have  defi- 
nitely settled  the  details  this  (Tuesday)  evening,  and  we  go 
to  New  York  to  live."  Fifteen  minutes  later  he  received 
a  letter  from  Mrs.  Colfax,  in  which  she  said  :  "  I  hope  you 
will  not  accept. "  He  telegraphed  his  secretary  to  with- 
hold the  announcement,  and  wrote  Orton,  who  was  still  in 
Washington,  that  it  was  the  business  of  a  life,  not  of  an 
hour,  with  him  ;  and  that  he  must  have  three  days  to  go 
and  see  Mrs.  Colfax  in  Ohio  before  he  could  irrevocably 
decide. 

Mr.  Orton  replied,  on  the  i8th,  that  he  was  surprised, 
for  he  had  retired  the  previous  evening  in  "  the  belief  that 
a  night's  reflection  would  dispel  your  doubts,  and  that  I 
should  receive  notice  to  that  effect  this  morning."  Recit- 
ing the  history  of  the  negotiation  as  above  related,  Orton 
says  :  "  You  now  ask  for  a  delay  of  three  days.  The  state 
of  my  arrangements  for  the  future  management  of  the 
property  renders  it  impossible  for  me  to  consent,  and  I  am 
constrained  to  accept  your  action  as  a  termination  of  the 
negotiation  for  the  present.  Should  you  be  inclined  to 
reopen  it  at  any  time  before  I  have  concluded  other  ar- 
rangements, I  shall  be  pleased  to  hear  from  you." 

Mr.  Colfax  answers  this  letter  later  in  the  day,  detail- 
ing the  grounds  of  his  action.  "  I  had  supposed  till  the 
close  of  our  conversation  that  the  eight  shares  had  been 
reserved  forme  out  of  the  fifty-one.  As  it  stands  now,  you 
could  sell  the  fifty-one  shares  outright  to  any  one  or  to 
any  interest,  and  while  I  would  be  editor  I  would  be  pow- 
erless, and  the  public  would  understand  that  the  proprie- 
tary control  was  in  the  hands  of  an  unfriendly  person.  I 


390  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

fear  I  would  be  a  very  positive  editor,  perhaps  too  much 
so  for  one  powerless  in  the  proprietary  interest  of  the 
paper."  He  says  further  that  he  did  not  (on  the  iyth) 
have  a  satisfactory  interview,  Orton's  mind  seeming  to  be 
preoccupied  by  other  business.  "  I  did  not  wish  to  dis- 
oblige an  old  and  valued  friend  like  yourself,  nor  to  ask  de- 
lay, and  you  regarded  it  as  essential  that  action  should  be 
had  at  once.  I  therefore  informally  and  generally  said 
what  I  did,  though  expressing  decided  dislike  of  the  modi- 
fication of  my  terms  as  to  time  of  contract."  He  acknowl- 
edged Orton's  right  to  terminate  the  negotiation  for  the 
present,  and  accepted  it,  giving  Orton  full  liberty  to  say 
that  it  was  his  fault.  Thus  it  ended,  and  well  for  the  Vice- 
President. 

Had  he  been  ten  years  younger,  and  able  to  get  his 
steadfast  friends  to  purchase  and  hold  the  controlling  in- 
terest in  the  paper,  it  would  have  been  a  great  opportunity. 
But  with  the  control  anywhere  else,  no  matter  where,  it 
was  no  place  for  him  ;  for,  as  he  said,  he  was  a  man  of 
strong  convictions,  and  years  in  high  office  had  increased 
his  natural  unfitness  for  a  subordinate  position. 

Four  years  later  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Orton,  thanking  him 
for  protesting  "  against  the  false  and  unjust  use  of  my 
name  in  the  Sun's  account  of  the  Tribune  negotiations.  We 
both  well  know  that  our  negotiation  did  not  fall  through 
on  account  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  charge.  My  wife's  re- 
luctance and  the  fear  that  I  should  be  exposed  to  just  such 
charges  as  Whitelaw  Reid  has  to  bear  now  were  the  cause, 
and,  in  spite  of  constant  questioning,  I  refused  to  tell  any- 
thing about  where  the  money  came  from."  It  is  no  secret 
now  that  it  came  from  Jay  Gould  ;  nor  was  it  a  secret  then 
in  the  Vice-President's  family  ;  nor  that  this  was  the  main 
objection  he  had  to  accepting  the  position.  Within  a  week 
Mr.  Reid  had  somehow  displaced  Mr.  Orton  in  Mr.  Gould's 
good  graces.  Gould  found  Orton's  collateral  unsatisfac- 
tory ;  Orton's  friends  failed  to  come  to  his  assistance  ;  and 
the  Tribune  of  the  23d  of  November  contained  Reid's  salu- 
tatory instead  of  either  Colfax's  or  Orton's. 

Mr.  Sinclair  wrote  Col  fax,  December  2ist  :  "  There  was 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  39! 

no  action  by  our  Board  of  Trustees,  only  a  talk.  Several 
of  the  trustees  doubted  whether  the  change  [in  the  course 
of  the  paper]  should  be  made  while  the  then  proprietors 
owned  ;  but  when  a  sale  should  have  been  effected,  nearly 
every  one  agreed  that  you  would  be  the  man  for  editor. 
After  consultation  with  Ripley,  Rooker,  and  others,  I 
think  all  but  Reid  decided  to  sell,  and  I  saw  Orton,  giving 
him  the  answer  just  before  I  saw  you  at  Hoyt's.  The 
entire  scheme  would  have  met  the  approval  of  the  stock- 
holders and  the  public.  I  think  that  you  missed  a  golden 
opportunity  to  make  a  big  reputation  in  a  newspaper." 

Most  of  the  Republican  papers  desired  that  Mr.  Colfax 
should  accept  the  editorship  of  the  Tribune  for  the  sake  of 
the  party.  Most  of  his  personal  friends  in  the  press  de- 
sired it  for  his  own  sake  as  well  as  the  party's,  but  some  of 
them  advised  him  against  it,  and  gave  strong  reasons. 
The  people  of  South  Bend  were  greatly  relieved  when  the 
negotiations  fell  through.  "  You  cannot  imagine  how 
anxious  your  friends  here  were  during  the  negotiations/' 
wrote  Mr.  Alfred  B.  Miller,  of  the  South  Bend  Tribune, 
"  and  I  did  not  hear  one  express  aught  but  regret  that  you 
should  think  of  going  in  there."  His  South  Bend  friends 
believed  that  his  removal  to  New  York  and  entrance  on 
this  new  editorial  career  would  in  someway  be  detrimental 
to  his  chances  of  being  called  to  the  Chief  Magistracy,  upon 
which  their  hearts  had  been  set  for  years. 

The  Vice-President  went  to  Ohio,  and  he  and  Mrs.  Col- 
fax  took  their  Christmas  dinner  with  Uncle  Ben  Wade  at 
Jefferson,  happy  to  have  escaped  the  task  of  reversing  and 
resuscitating  a  moribund  newspaper,  even  though  that 
newspaper  was  the  New  York  Tribune. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

FORTY-SECOND    CONGRESS    (CONTINUED). 

Credit  Mobilier* . 

18/1-1873. 

THE  CHARGES  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  THE  HOUSE. — EXCITEMENT  BE- 
COMES DELIRIUM. — THE  CONGRESSIONAL  INVESTIGATION  A  NATIONAL 
CALAMITY. — THE  APPEAL  "  FROM  PHILIP  DRUNK  TO  PHILIP  SOBER." 
— PECULIARITIES  OF  THE  INVESTIGATION. — THE  CHARGE  SHIFTED 
FROM  CORRUPTION  TO  FALSEHOOD.  —  COLFAX  CONTRADICTED  BY 
AMES.— WHAT  WAS  ELICITED  PRO  AND  CON. — THE  TWELVE-HUN- 
DRED-DOLLAR DIVIDEND  CHECK. — AMES'S  DIARIES. — COLFAX'S  BANK 
ACCOUNT.  —  SUSPICIOUS  DEPOSIT  EXPLAINED.  —  DILLON  PAID  THE 
CHECK  TO  AMES. — DREW  SAW  IT  PAID.— AMES  ACKNOWLEDGES  IT 
TO  GENERAL  FISK.— AMES'S  MEMORY  AT  FAULT. — COLFAX'S  FEEL- 
INGS DURING  THE  TRIAL. — RECEPTION  IN  PHILADELPHIA. — ROBBED, 

PROPERTY  RECOVERED. — PASSES  THE  GAVEL  OF  THE  SENATE  TO  HIS 
SUCCESSOR. — AND  RETIRES  FROM  PUBLIC  LIFE. 

ON  the  assembling  of  Congress  after  the  Presidential 
election,  on  motion  of  Speaker  Elaine,  who  descended 
from  the  Speaker's  Chair  for  that  purpose,  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  investigate  the  Credit  Mobilier  charges 
of  the  campaign,  with  Judge  Poland,  of  Vermont,  as 
chairman.  The  first  sessions  of  this  committee  were 
mostly  occupied  with  the  conflicting  statements  of  the 
Credit  Mobilier  associates  respecting  one  another.1  Strik- 
ing as  fair  an  average  of  their  averments  as  may  be,  it  ap- 

1.  These  men  left  upon  the  public  records  unique  portraits  of  themselves  and  of  one 
another.  No  two  of  them  agreed  in  their  statements  about  the  same  matters.  No  one  in 
Congress  could  make  anything  out  of  their  books,  they  themselves  could  not,  or  their 
own  book-keepers.  Yet  doubtless  they  had  the  probity,  without  which  a  man  cannot 
long  do  business.  They  met  their  obligations  when  due,  if  they  could.  As  undoubtedly 
they  habitually  bought  their  way  through  or  over  all  opposition,  with  no  thought  that  in 
some  cases  it  might  be  corrupt,  and  no  care  if  it  was.  There  are  "honest  men,"  and 
honest  men,  it  seems. 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  393 

pears  that  in  the  fall  of  1867,  when,  through  a  combination 
of  favorable  circumstances,  Credit  Mobilier  stock  jumped 
from  below  par  to  one  hundred  and  sixty,  a  block  of  it 
was  assigned  to  Oakes  Ames  and  Thomas  C.  Durant  at 
par  and  interest  from  the  July  previous,  on  the  ground 
that  they  had  pledged  it  when  no  one  wanted  it,  and 
when  it  was  a  great  object  to  them  to  get  it  taken.  Henry 
S.  McComb  demanded  some  shares  on  the  same  ground, 
but  the  associates  did  not  deem  him  entitled  to  them.  For 
his  part,  Ames  had  about  three  hundred  and  forty  shares. 
Those  to  whom  he  claimed  to  have  pledged  it  before  the 
"  boom"  failed  to  appear,  or  else  they  had  declined  to  take 
it.  The  committee  could  get  track  of  only  one  hundred 
and  eighty  shares  of  it,  and  they  could  not  ascertain  from 
Ames  that  any  of  the  Congressmen  except  Glenni  W. 
Scofield,  of  Pennsylvania,  had  been  solicited  to  buy  it  prior 
to  the  December  (1867)  meeting  of  Congress. 

Mr.  Ames  appears  to  have  sold  to  different  Congress- 
men early  in  this  session  one  hundred  and  eighty  shares  of 
the  stock,  for  the  purpose  of  insuring  their  attention  to  the 
interests  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  which  he  claimed 
were  the  prey  of  the  lobby,  and  in  which  he  had  invested 
five  or  six  million  dollars.  He  said  he  had  noticed  that 
men  would  look  after  a  thing  in  which  they  were  person- 
ally  interested.  He  made  a  business  of  "placing"  this 
stock.  None  of  the  Congressmen  went  to  him  first  about 
it,  none  of  them  suspected  anything  wrong  in  connection 
with  it,  none  of  them  knew  much  about  what  it  was. 
"  Ames  was  not  a  full  man  in  his  explanations,"  said  his 
friend,  Horace  F.  Clark.  Closer  acquaintance  made  them 
suspicious  of  the  stock,  and  they  all  sold  out  of  it  within 
a  year  or  two,  some  with  a  profit,  one  at  least  with  loss. 
Ames  had  written  McComb  what  he  was  doing  with  the 
stock,  and  McComb  made  use  of  the  information  in  the 
suit  against  him  before  mentioned.1  This  not  having  the 
desired  effect,  McComb  waited  until  the  heat  of  the  Presi- 
dential election  of  1872,  and  then  threatened  to  publish  the 
information  unless  Ames  would  concede  his  demands. 

1  See  ante,  p.  382. 


394  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Ames,  McComb  says,  told  him  "to  publish  and  be 
damned,"  and  it  was  published.  The  partisan  press  at 
once  transformed  it  into  the  charge  that  these  Congress- 
.men  had  been  bribed  by  gifts  of  this  stock  to  sacrifice  the 
public  interest  in  the  Pacific  Railroad  to  the  interest  of 
speculators.  Some  of  those  accused  publicly  denied  this, 
and  among  these  was  the  Vice-President. 

Mr.  Oakes  Ames's  letters  to  McComb  stated  to  whom 
he  had  sold  the  stock,  and  for  what  purpose.  The  persons 
named  were  among  the  most  prominent  and  faithful  public 
servants  of  the  preceding  fifteen  years.  If  these  men  could 
be  bribed  and  had  been  bribed  to  betray  their  trust,  all 
trust  seemed  vain — a  mockery.  A  fair  investigation  was 
by  every  consideration  due  to  them  and  to  the  country. 
But  in  the  excited  state  of  public  feeling  no  fair  investiga- 
tion was  possible.  McComb' s  testimony  had  been  magni- 
fied and  distorted  out  of  all  semblance  for  political  pur- 
poses. This  was  continued  after  the  election  from  various 
motives  and  for  a  variety  of  objects,  until  the  general  ap- 
petite for  scandal  latent  in  every  community  was  roused  to 
intense  activity.  As  the  examination  got  well  under  way, 
public  excitement  became  public  delirium.  All  the  ac- 
cused had  lived  in  the  public  eye  without  flaw  or  speck  for 
a  generation.  If  corrupt,  they  would  have  been  rolling  in 
wealth.  Without  exception,  they  were  struggling  with 
comparative  poverty.  Yet  they  were  sent  forth  from  the 
Capital  they  had  saved  crowned  with  thorns  instead  of 
laurel. 

At  first  the  public  was  excluded  from  the  sessions  of 
the  committee,  but  on  the  6th  of  January,  in  deference  to 
popular  clamor,  the  House  ordered  the  committee  to  sit 
with  open  doors,  and  to  give  to  the  press  the  testimony 
already  taken.  The  House  also  appointed  a  second  com- 
mittee, of  which  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Indiana,  was  made  chair- 
man, to  investigate  the  relations  and  co-transactions  of  the 
Credit  Mobilier  and  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  companies. 
Although,  now,  the  prominent  men  of  those  concerns  were 
before  the  two  committees  in  turn,  day  after  day,  testify- 
ing and  being  examined,  little  that  was  definite  could  be 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  395 

ascertained  from  their  conflicting  testimony,  and  in  the 
inflamed  state  of  public  feeling  people  and  Congress  imag- 
ined themselves  in  the  presence  of  the  most  stupendous 
fraud  and  spoliation  of  ancient  or  modern  times. 

Congressmen  became  wilder  than  the  most  sensational 
alarmists  on  the  press.  "  I  declare,"  said  Mr.  Shellabarger 
in  the  House,  "  in  all  the  history  of  finance  connected 
with  works  of  this  or  any  other  country,  I  never  saw  a 
scheme  of  villainy  so  profoundly  arranged,  so  cunningly 
carried  forward,  and  so  disastrously  executed  as  this  one 
disclosed  by  the  report  [of  the  Wilson  Committee]  now 
submitted  to  the  House."  "  And  this  is  only  the  out- 
cropping," said  the  Hon.  Job  E.  Stevenson,  of  Ohio, 
"  the  surface  indication  of  a  vast  system  of  fraud,  by  which 
there  have  been  turned  into  the  hands  and  pockets  of  citi- 
zens, private  and  official,  within  the  last  decade,  the  value 
of  two  hundred  million  acres  of  public  lands  and  over 
sixty  million  dollars  in  cash.  The  value  of  that  land,  ac- 
cording to  the  statement  of  land-grant  railroad  companies, 
is  to-day  not  less  than  one  billion  dollars.  This  is  the 
most  mammoth  robbery  ever  practised  on  any  government 
or  people." 

There  was  nothing  but  panic  in  this  outcry.  Instead 
of  losing  anything  by  the  concessions  of  the  Pacific  Rail- 
road legislation,  the  United  States  never  made  so  advan- 
tageous a  bargain  in  any  other  case.  The  Government  has 
no  legitimate  business  with  the  public  lands  except  to  get 
them  into  the  possession  of  settlers  as  cheaply,  as  speedily, 
and  with  as  little  friction  as  possible.  No  way  of  doing 
this  could  be  better,  even  now,  than  granting  them  in 
alternate  sections  as  an  inducement  to  the  construction  of 
railroads.  For  every  acre  of  land  thus  granted,  the  Gov- 
ernment doubled  the  price  of  an  acre  retained,  and  through 
the  railroads  made  both  acres  immediately  available  to  the 
people.  These  lands,  if  arable,  passed  quickly  into  the 
hands  of  actual  farmers,  and  are  now  the  abodes  of  pros- 
perous and  happy  communities. 

As  to  the  subsidy  bonds,  the  Government  has  realized 
their  value,  principal  and  interest,  twice  over,  probably 


396  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

five  times  over,  directly  and  indirectly.  From  1862  to 
1868,  inclusive,  six  or  seven  million  dollars  were  disbursed 
every  year  for  transportation  and  the  subsistence  of  troops 
west  of  the  Missouri  River,  exclusive  of  the  expense  of 
yearly  campaigns  against  the  Indians,  one  of  which,  that 
of  General  Sibley,  cost  forty-three  million  dollars.  Since 
the  completion  of  the  road,  in  1869,  there  have  been  no 
Indian  wars  on  the  line,  and  the  ordinary  yearly  disburse- 
ments in  that  region  have  been  reduced  eighty  to  ninety 
per  cent. 

When  the  road  reached  the  site  of  the  present  town  of 
Cheyenne,  the  New  York  Tribune  (of  October  28th,  1867) 
told  the  whole  story  in  the  caption  of  an  editorial — namely? 
"  Five  Hundred  Miles  of  Civilization."  When  the  entire 
road  was  completed,  the  story  was  "  Two  Thousand  Miles 
of  Civilization,"  By  means  of  the  road  white  men  have 
been  substituted  for  savages,  domestic  cattle  for  buffalo, 
income  for  outlay,  perpetual  peace  for  perpetual  war,  in 
the  wide  belt  of  steppe  and  mountain  which  formerly  sep- 
arated the  West  coast  from  the  rest  of  the  country  more 
impassably  than  any  ocean  could  have  done. 

Against  this  magical  transformation,  which  cannot  be 
translated  into  sums  of  dollars,  is  to  be  charged,  until  it  is 
paid,  the  indebtedness  of  the  subsidized  railroad  companies 
to  the  Government.  They  propose  to  extinguish  this  in- 
debtedness by  a  series  of  fixed  semiannual  payments. 
Their  proposition  will  without  doubt  be  accepted  in  time, 
and  thus  the  debt  be  cleared  off.  Meanwhile  the  roads 
have  been  improved,  extended,  and  supplied  with  feeders, 
until  they  are  better  security  for  two  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  of  indebtedness  than  they  were  in  1869  for  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  millions. 

When  in  after  times  the  history  of  these  transactions 
shall  be  written,  it  will  be  set  down  that  it  was  the  people 
and  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  not  the  subsi- 
dized Pacific  Railroad,  that  made  "  a  thousand  and  sixty 
million  dollars"  out  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  legislation  of 
the  war  period.  It  will  be  set  down  that  while  in  those 
perilous  times  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  was  universally  re- 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  397 

garded  as  cheap  at  one  hundred  million  dollars,  the  matter 
was  so  managed  that  instead  of  giving  a  dollar  for  the 
road,  the  road  itself  was  ultimately  forced  to  pay  the  Gov- 
ernment more  than  two  hundred  millions  in  interest  alone, 
and  that  this  vast  tribute  was  levied  upon  a  region  which, 
by  reason  of  its  arid  and  mountainous  character,  was  in  any 
event  taxed  twice  as  much  for  the  same  transportation  as 
any  other  part  of  the  Union.1 

But  in  1872-73  the  people  were  made  to  believe  that 
corruption  and  fraud  had  tainted  this  patriotic  if  bungling 
legislation  -from  the  beginning.  The  urgent  demand  for 
the  road  as  a  military  necessity  when  civil  war  was  raging 
and  foreign  war  seemed  unavoidable  ;  the  willingness  of 
the  Government  and  the  people  to  give  even  more  than 
was  proffered  to  induce  its  construction  ;  the  fact  that  this 
was  four  years  prior  to  the  era  of  the  Credit  Mobilier,  and 
that  the  proffer  of  the  Government,  liberal  as  under 
changed  conditions  it  proved  to  be,  went  begging  for  three 
years  before  it  found  acceptance  ;  *  the  risks  taken  by  those 
who  undertook  the  work,  and  the  fact  that  they  wasted 
their  profits  in  hurrying  it  to  completion  five  years  within 
charter  time,  to  the  advantage  of  the  country  and  the  Gov- 
ernment ;  the  fact  that  the  road  could  never  have  been 
built  by  subscription  to  its  stock,  but  had  to  be  built,  if  at 
all,  through  a  construction  company3  —  all  these  things 
were  lost  sight  of  in  the  prevailing  anxiety  to  find  the 
builders  of  the  road  great  public  robbers,  and  certain  pub- 
lic men  of  high  reputation  to  have  been  their  tools.  The 

1.  In  advancing  its  bonds,  the  Government  failed  to  reserve  the  option  to  redeem  them 
after  five  or  ten  years,  as  was  done  in  all  the  other  issues  of  bonds.    This  oversight  alone 
added  one  third  to  the  interest  account  of  the  road.    The  Government  greatly  reduced 
the  debt-paying  capacity  of  the  road  by  encouraging  the  construction  of  competing  roads, 
and  for  many  years  it  otherwise  materially  hampered  and  crippled  the  road,  by  treat- 
ing it,  in  deference  to  popular  clamor,  as  a  public  enemy.    The  subsidy  bonds  should 
have  been  granted  outright,  not  loaned,  and  redeemed  after  five  years,  and  there  an  end. 

2.  Even  Credit  Mobilier  stock  could  hardly  be  given  away  until  the  fall  of  1867,  three 
years  after  the  charter  of  1864  was  granted. 

3.  Two  thirds  of  our  railroads  have  been  built  through  construction  companies.    If  it 
is  fraudulent,  an  entire  generation,  with  its  legislative  bodies  and  courts,  is  tainted  with 
the  fraud.    A  keen  observer  says  that  "  the  conquest  of  this  continent  by  the  railroad 
has  been  involved  in  no  more  corruption  than  personal  and  State  ambition  and  extension 
anywhere,  even  in  churches."    But  some  observers  see  nothing  but  spots  even  when 
they  look  at  the  sun. 


398  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Public  Accuser  became  the  popular  idol.1  Through  him  it 
was  expected  if  not  hoped  to  establish  that  all  public  men 
were  venal.  His  old  diaries,  his  memorandum  checks  and 
entries,  his  "  original  memoranda  on  slips  of  paper,"  were 
accepted  as  conclusive  against  gentlemen  of  singular 
purity  and  unimpeachable  veracity,  although  they  would 
have  been  thrown  out  of  any  justice's  court  in  the  land. 
His  tergiversation,  his  obscurity,  his  uncertain  recollection, 
even  his  self-contradictions,  troubled  no  one  but  his  victims. 
It  is  a  conclusive  comment  on  the  character  of  the  inves- 
tigation, that  the  appeal  "from  Philip  drunk  to  Philip 
sober"  placed  all  of  the  "  investigated  "  who  were  not 
killed  by  it,  or  who  did  not  forswear  a  service  liable  to 
such  compensation,  in  higher  station  than  before.  On  the 
testimony  of  a  man  whose  expulsion  from  Congress  the 
Poland  Committee  recommended,  because  he  could  not  be 
trusted  as  a  public  agent  or  treated  as  the  associate  of  hon- 
orable men,  that  committee  found  James  Abram  Garfield, 
of  Ohio,  guilty  of  falsehood  and  perjury.  Seven  years 
afterward  the  people  of  the  United  States  elected  Garfield 
President,  Judge  Poland  and  his  political  associates  on  the 
Investigating  Committee  supporting  him  for  that  office, 
and  every  Republican  journal  that  joined  in  the  commit- 
tee's verdict  against  him  eating  its  barbed  words  over  and 
over  again.2 

1.  During  the  last  session  of  the  Forty-second  Congress  there  existed  a  veritable  Reign 
of  Terror.  There  were  numerous  caricatures  of  Marat,  with  their  "Amis  du  Peuple." 
There  was  a  semblance  of  the  Convention,  dominated  by  a  mob,  a  sort  of  Revolutionary 
Tribunal,  a  Public  Accuser,  and  a  Place  du  Grgve  for  shining  reputations. 

2  Before  the  Poland  Committee  Mr.  Garfield  said,  under  oath  :  "  I  never  owned,  re- 
ceived, or  agreed  to  receive  any  stock  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  or  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road, nor  any  dividends  or  profits  arising  from  either  of  them." 

Judge  Poland's  Committee  said  in  its  report :  "  He  [Garfield]  agreed  with  Mr.  Ames  to 
take  ten  shares  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock,  but  did  not  pay  for  the  same.  Mr.  Ames  re- 
ceived the  eighty  per  cent  dividend  in  bonds,  and  sold  them  for  ninety-seven  per  cent,  and 
also  received  the  sixty  per  cent  cash  dividend,  which,  together  with  the  price  of  the  stock 
and  interest,  left  a  balance  of  three  hundred  and  twenty-nine  dollars.  This  sum  was  paid 
over  to  Mr.  Garfield  by  a  check  on  the  Sergeant-at-Arms." 

When  Garfield  was  before  the  country  for  election  as  President,  Judge  Poland  wrote : 
"  I  desire  to  say  to  all  who  may  feel  any  interest  in  my  opinion  of  General  Garfield,  that 
nothing  which  appeared  before  the  committee,  or  which  appears  in  their  report,  or  any 
other  matter  or  thing  which  ever  came  to  my  knowledge  in  regard  to  him,  ever  led  me  to 
doubt  his  personal  integrity.  I  believe  him  to  be  a  thoroughly  upright  and  honest  man, 
and  who  would  be  so  under  all  circumstances  and  against  any  temptation." 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  399 

Men  whose  pockets  were  full  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock, 
in  whose  interest  Congress  had  been  corrupted — if,  indeed, 
Congress  had  been  corrupted — were  not  visited  with  a 
breath  of  criticism,  because  they  had  bought  the  stock 
some  months  or  years  before  it  began  to  earn  dividends. 
Men  who  should  have  said  :  "  I  was  promised  a  hundred 
shares  of  it,  I  could  get  only  ten,  so  I  declined  to  take 
any,"  but  who  did  say  :  "  I  was  asked  to  take  some  and 
declined/'  were  dismissed  without  a  question,  though  the 
facts  were  well  known.  Men  who  said  :  "  I  bought  the 
stock  and  received  all  the  dividends — I  wish  I  could  have 
got  more  of  it" — were  permitted  to  depart  in  peace.  All 
those  who  had  settled  with  the  stock-broker  and  passed 
receipts  escaped  with  the  mild  criticism  that  they  should 
have  been  more  careful  in  investing  their  money.  The 
reprobation  of  the  committee,  except  with  respect  to 
Ames  and  Brooks,  and  the  weightiest  imprecations  of  the 
partisan  press  were  reserved  for  those  gentlemen  who, 
upon  being  asked  to  take  the  stock,  had  contemplated  doing 
so,  but  on  second  thought  had  declined,  and  had  there- 
fore had  neither  stock  nor  dividends,  but  who,  never  hav- 
ing received  or  passed  any  papers  with  the  stock-broker, 
had  nought  but  their  word  for  their  version  of  the  contem- 
plated transaction.  Of  course  their  veracity  was  impugned, 
and  there  being  nothing  in  the  original  charge  of  corrup- 
tion, the  accusation  was  shifted  to  that  of  evasion  and 
falsehood.  Something  had  to  be  done  to  appease  popular 
clamor  and  clear  the  skirts  of  the  party.  The  lot  of  scape- 
goat fell  upon  the  retiring  Vice-President. 

Mr.  Colfax  went  voluntarily  before  the  committee  at 
the  earliest  opportunity,  and  stated  his  exact  connection 
with  Ames  and  his  construction  stock.  He  said  in  sub- 
stance that  he  had  once  agreed  to  buy  twenty  shares  of  the 
stock  at  par,  and  interest  for  a  few  months  previous,  and 
had  paid  about  five  hundred  dollars  on  it ;  that  later,  hear- 
ing of  threatened  litigation  among  the  heavy  stockholders, 
and  not  wishing  to  own  an  interest  in  a  lawsuit,  he  told 
Ames  the  same  day  that  he  must  recede  from  the  transac- 
tion ;  that  when  Ames  failed,  some  two  years  afterward,  he 


400  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

told  him  he  was  sorry  for  his  misfortune,  and  that  he  need 
not  mind  the  small  amount  between  them.  He  said  that 
he  had  never  realized  a  cent  from  the  transaction,  but  had 
lost  the  five  hundred  dollars. 

When  Mr.  Ames  testified  in  chief,  December  lyth,  he 
said  he  was  inclined  to  think  that  he  had  paid  Mr.  Colfax 
some  dividends  on  the  stock,  but  he  was  not  sure.  When 
Colfax  testified,  January  yth,  he  called  attention  to  the  un- 
certainty of  Ames  on  this  point,  and  said  :  "  I  wish  to  re- 
peat that  I  never  did  receive  a  dollar,  or  the  value  of  a 
dollar,  or  any  amount  whatever  from  him."  Ames  was  of 
the  opinion  that  Colfax's  version  of  the  transaction  was 
substantially  correct,  as  he  admitted  to  his  friend  and  col- 
league John  B.  Alley,  of  Massachusetts,  to  L.  L.  Crounse, 
of  the  New  York  Times,  and  to  William  Scott  Smith,  Wash- 
ington  agent  of  the  Evening  Press  Association.1  But,  as 

1.  See  Poland  Report  (No.  77,  House,  third  session,  Forty-second  Congress),  pp.  311, 
318,  for  testimony  of  Alley  and  Crounse. 

Following  is  Scott's  letter  to  Colfax  : 

"  OFFICE  OF  THE  EVENING  PRESS  ASSOCIATION,  \ 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  March  5,  1873.       j 

"DEAR  SIR:  I  have  been  urged  by  one  or  more  friends  to  communicate  to  you  the 
point  of  a  conversation  I  had  with  Oakes  Ames  in  relation  to  yourself,  on  the  evening  of 
the  day  following  the  one  on  which  you  made  a  statement  before  Judge  Poland's  Com- 
mittee, in  relation  to  your  alleged  connection  with  the  Credit  Mobilier  corporation.  As 
anxious  as  I  was  that  you  should  establish,  beyond  all  question,  the  falsity  of  the  charges 
made  against  you,  believing  firmly  that  they  were  false,  I  felt  that  I  had  not  the  moral 
right  to  make  use  of  a  private  conversation  on  the  witness-stand  or  to  subject  a  personal 
friend  to  the  indignities  which  he  would  have  received  at  the  hands  of  your  enemies  by 
placing  him  there  also  to  narrate  the  conversation  between  Mr.  Ames  and  myself  in  his 
presence— a  conversation,  although  not  confidential,  yet  of  a  private  nature.  The  inves- 
tigation having  closed,  and  Mr.  Ames  having  made  certain  statements,  publicly,  contra- 
dictory of  your  explanation,  and  contrary  to  his  private  statement  to  me  in  the  presence 
of  a  witness,  I  feel  as  though  it  is  a'duty  I  owe  to  give  you  the  benefit  of  the  Ames  state- 
ment. 

"  On  the  evening  of  the  day  alluded  to  [January  8th]  Mr.  Ames  came  into  the  room  of 
a  friend  upon  whom  I  was  calling,  at  the  Arlington  House  ;  and  after  talking  to  some 
extent  on  various  matters,  he  said,  with  much  earnestness,  that  he  was  surprised  to  see 
that  you  had  stated  before  the  Poland  Committee  that  he  [Ames]  still  owed  you  the  sum 
you  had  originally  paid  him  as  a  subscription  to  the  stock  of  the  Credit  Mobilier.  '  Col- 
fax astonishes  me,1  said  Mr.  Ames,  '  and  I  have  been  looking  up  the  matter  to  see  if  he  is 
correct.  I  remember  well  of  his  paying  me  the  five  hundred  dollars,  and  of  his  coming 
to  me  afterward  and  saying  he  had  concluded  to  back  out  of  the  transaction  ;  but  my 
memory  is  clear,  and,  in  fact,  I  know  that  I  paid  him  back  his  money  at  the  time,  and  that 
the  matter  was  then  closed  up  without  his  taking  the  stock  or  my  paying  over  to  him  any 
dividends. ' 

"  I  was  much  impressed  with  what  Mr.  Ames  said,  and  believed,  as  he  stated,  that  you 
had  never  taken  the  stock  or  received  any  of  the  dividends.  And  I  confess  that  as  be- 


FORTY-SECOND  CONGRESS.  4OI 

he  said  to  Scott  Smith  at  the  Arlington  House,  on  the  even- 
ing of  January  8th,  the  statement  that  he  had  never  re- 
turned the  five  hundred  dollars  to  Colfax  startled  him. 
"  Colfax  astonishes  me,"  said  Ames  to  Smith,  "  and  I  have 
been  looking  up  the  matter  to  see  if  he  is  correct.  I  re- 
member well  of  his  paying  me  the  five  hundred  dollars, 
and  of  his  coming  to  me  afterward  and  saying  that  he  had 
concluded  to  back  out  of  the  transaction  ;  but  my  memory 
is  clear — in  fact,  I  know  that  I  paid  him  back  his  money  at 
the  time,  and  that  the  matter  was  closed  up  without 
his  taking  the  stock  or  my  paying  over  to  him  any  divi- 
dends." 

Continuing  his  investigation,  Ames,  on  the  gth  or  roth, 
visited  the  office  of  the  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  House,  and 
asked  that  officer  if  he  preserved  his  vouchers.  Mr.  Ord- 
way  preserved  his  vouchers,  and  looking  through  a  bundle 
of  them,  Mr.  Ames  found  Colfax' s  check  for  five  hundred 
and  thirty-four  dollars  and  seventy-two  cents,  payable  to 
him,  and  his  own  check  for  twelve  hundred  dollars,  payable 
to  "  S.  C.  or  bearer."  One  of  his  sons  went  to  Washing- 
ton from  Massachusetts  about  the  i8th,  in  company  with 
George  W.  Kennedy,  book-keeper  of  Oliver  Ames  &  Sons, 
conveying  to  Oakes  Ames  his  pocket  diaries  for  1868  and 
1869.  Comparing  the  checks  with  the  entries  in  his  diary 
of  1868,  Ames  found  that  they  indicated  the  payment  to 
him  by  Colfax,  in  early  March,  1868,  of  five  hundred  and 
thirty-four  dollars  and  seventy-two  cents,  and  the  payment 
by  him  to  Colfax  of  twelve  hundred  dollars,  on  the  2oth  of 
June,  1868. 

Meanwhile  Messrs.  Garfield,  Kelley,  Patterson,  and 
Scofield  had  been  before  the  committee,  and  flatly  contra- 

tween  his  public  statement,  made  after  his  conversation  with  me,  in  which  he  maintained 
that  you  took  the  stock  and  received  the  dividends,  and  his  private  statement,  I  felt  that 
I  must  accept  the  latter,  believing  that  Mr.  Ames,  in  his  former  statement, was  influenced 
by  some  unexplained  motive.  In  the  six  years  I  have  represented  leading  papers,  East 
and  West,  at  the  Capital,  among  the  very  few  men  in  Congressional  life  whose  integrity 
I  have  never  heard  impeached  or  called  in  question,  you  are  one.  The  recent  Credit  Mo- 
bilier  investigation  has  not  shaken  my  judgment ;  and  I  feel  that  when  the  public  excite- 
ment subsides,  and  the  facts  can  be  looked  at  dispassionately,  the  people  will  continue  to 
trust  you  as  they  ever  have  in  the  past. 

"  Sincerely  yours,  W.  SCOTT  SMITH. 

"  TO  HON.  SCHTTYLEB  COLPAX." 


4O2  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

dieted  Ames's  testimony  concerning  them  ;  and  Mr.  Thomas 
C.  Durant  had  said  to  the  committee  :  "  The  stock  that 
stands  in  the  name  of  Mr.  Ames  as  trustee  I  claim  belongs  to 
the  [Credit  Mobilier]  company  yet,  and  I  have  a  summons 
in  a  suit  in  my  pocket  waiting  to  catch  him  in  New  York 
to  serve  the  papers."  Oakes  Ames  was  hard  pressed.  He 
had  rendered  the  country  a  great  service  in  building  the 
Pacific  Railroad.  In  accordance  with  eminent  legal  advice 
[that  of  the  Hon.  Samuel  J.  Tilden],  he  and  his  associates 
had  taken  what  the  law  offered  for  building  the  road.  He 
had  sought  to  interest  leading  Congressmen  in  the  enter- 
prise, in  order'to  assure  their  attention  in  case  it  was  at- 
tacked. He  saw  nothing  wrong  or  even  indelicate  in  this. 
He  shared  the  contempt  of  his  class  for  moral  scruples 
standing  in  the  way  of  great  material  achievements.  He 
shared  the  contempt  of  his  class  for  men  whose  tempera- 
ment impels  them  to  devote  themselves  to  public  affairs  in- 
stead of  to  money-getting,  and  who  therefore  reach  middle 
life  "  without  a  dollar."  He  was  not  a  miser — a  miser 
takes  no  chances — but  he  was  penurious,  and  consumed 
with  the  ambition  to  be  immensely  rich.  The  attack  or 
overhauling  always  anticipated  had  come  ;  the  people  were 
exceedingly  excited  and  suspicious  ;  instead  of  serving  as 
a  protection,  "  placing"  the  stock  with  Congressmen  had 
already  wrought  his  ruin  ;  it  was  easy  to  convince  him  that 
a  conspiracy  existed  among  those  implicated  to  swear  away 
the  last  shreds  of  his  reputation.  He  was  breaking  down. 
He  died  within  three  months  from  a  stroke  of  paralysis. 
These  matters  were  five  years  past,  and  had  mostly  faded 
out  of  his  recollection.  He  returned  to  the  committee 
room  on  the  226.  of  January  in  a  grim  mood,  apparently 
determined  to  take  the  benefit  of  all  doubts  himself.  On 
this  occasion,  and  thenceforward,  nine  out  of  ten  of  his  an- 
swers were  mere  inferences  from  the  existence  of  his  checks 
and  the  entries  in  his  diaries,  his  memory,  as  he  acknowl- 
edged scores  of  times,  retaining  very  little,  if  anything  at 
all,  about  the  transactions  themselves. 

He  testified  that  he  had  given  the  twelve-hundred-dol- 
lar "  S.  C.  or  bearer"   check  to  Colfax  in  payment  of  a 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  403 

sixty  per  cent  cash  dividend  on  the  twenty  shares  of  Credit 
Mobilier  stock,  declared  about  the  middle  of  June,  1868, 
the  check  being  dated  June  2oth.  Ames  had  no  receipt 
for  this  alleged  payment.  The  check  was  not  indorsed. 
Of  itself  it  proved  no  more  against  Colfax  than  against  any- 
body else.  Ames  testified  that  he  gave  it  to  Mr.  Colfax. 
Colfax  testified  that  he  never  saw  it  till  it  was  brought 
into  the  committee-room  at  the  time  of  the  investigation. 
Ames  exhibited  an  entry  in  his  diary  for  1868,  purporting 
to  confirm  his  testimony.  But  the  entries  in  the  diary 
were  partly  made  from  memory.  Upon  handing  the  diary 
to  the  committee,  before  which,  on  the  demand  of  Colfax, 
Ames  at  length  reluctantly  produced  it,  Ames's  counsel, 
Horace  F.  Clark,  said  to  Judge  Poland  :  "  I  am  informed 
by  the  witness  [Ames]  that  these  memoranda  were  not  in 
every  instance  made  at  the  time,  but  that  they  refer  back 
to  the  true  date  of  the  transactions."  '  Ames  disclosed  in 
his  examination  that  he  himself  placed  little  or  no  reliance 
on  these  memoranda.  He  was  exceedingly  reluctant  to 
testify,  point-blank,  to  their  correctness.2  On  the  other 
hand,  Ames  acknowledged  to  the  committee  that  Colfax 
had  never  had  the  Credit  Mobilier  stock  ;  that  he  had  never 
called  for  it  ;  that  now,  five  years  after  his  first  and  last 
payment  on  it,  the  stock  was  still  in  his  (Ames's)  own  pos- 
session, together  with  sundry  other  dividends  earned  and 
declared  in  1868,  about  which  Colfax  had  never  said  a 
word  to  him.3  Ames  added  that  he  was  holding  the  stock 
and  dividends,  pending  the  decision  of  the  McComb  suit  ; 
but  that  was  in  explanation  of  why,  as  he  also  acknowl- 
edged, he  had  not  tendered  them  to  Colfax.  It  did  not 

1.  Poland  Report,  p.  448. 

2.  The  following  will  be  found  on  p.  455,  Poland  Report : 

"  Q.  I  find  on  your  memorandum-book,  right  below  the  entry  just  given,  the  follow- 
ing : 

"  •  Feb'y  1st,  1868.— Del'd  to  Hon.  Glenni  W.  Scofield  certificate  No.  346,  for  10  shares 
of  stock  on  Credit  Mobilier,  bot.  for  his  account.' 

"  That  certificate  of  ten  shares  was  delivered  to  Mr.  Scofield  ? 

"  A.  I  guess  it  was  afterward ;  I  cannot  remember. 

"  Q.  Do  you  think  you  gave  him  the  certificate  at  that  time  ? 

"  A.  I  think  not.  I  think  I  did  not  have  the  certificate  at  that  time.  I  think  I  gave 
him  a  receipt  for  the  money." 

3.  Poland  Report,  pp.  279-280. 


404  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

explain  why  Colfax  had  manifested  no  interest  in  them. 
Nor  is  there  any  possible  explanation  of  that  admitted  fact, 
except  that  Colfax,  as  he  always  maintained,  had  aban- 
doned the  stock. 

The  Wilson  Investigating  Committee  found  that  under 
the  Ames  contract  a  dividend  of  seventy- five  per  cent  in 
Union  Pacific  bonds  was  declared  July  3d,  and  a  cash  divi- 
dend of  thirty  per  cent  on  July  8th,  1868.  These  dividends 
stood  on  precisely  the  same  footing  as  the  sixty  per  cent 
cash  dividend  of  the  middle  of  June  which  was  in  dispute. 
Yet  Ames  did  not  claim  to  have  paid  them  to  Colfax,  and 
McComb's  suit  was  not  brought  till  the  following  Novem- 
ber. On  the  strength  of  an  entry  in  his  diary  for  1869,  Ames 
claimed  that  he  paid  sixty  dollars  and  seventy-five  cents  in- 
terest for  six  months  on  this  bond  dividend  of  July  3d,  1868 
— the  company  not  having  the  bonds,  and  issuing  certifi- 
cates instead — in  January,  1869.  Yet  he  did  not  claim  to 
have  paid  any  interest  after  that  six  months,  or  to  have  de- 
livered the  bonds,  or  their  equivalent.  He  did  not  claim  to 
have  paid  over  this  cash  dividend  of  July  8th,  1868,  either  at 
the  time  or  ever  afterward,  or  to  have  paid  any  interest  on 
it,  either  for  the  first  six  months  or  for  any  other  period. 

Ames's  testimony  received  more  support  and  credence 
from  its  apparent  confirmation  by  Colfax's  bank  account 
than  from  anything  he  produced.  In  denying  the  receipt 
of  this  twelve-hundred-dollar  dividend  check,  Colfax  re- 
ferred to  his  account  at  the  First  National  Bank  of  Wash- 
ington. Brought  before  the  committee,  this  account 
showed  a  deposit  on  June  22d,  1868 — two  days  later  than 
the  date  of  the  disputed  check — of  sundry  checks,  and  of 
twelve  hundred  dollars  in  currency.  But  after  a  little  de- 
lay in  getting  his  witnesses,  one  of  whom  resided  in  Utah, 
he  proved,  by  unimpeached  and  unimpeachable  testimony, 
that  the  deposit  consisted  of  two  hundred  dollars  received 
from  his  stepfather,  Mr.  Matthews,  in  payment  of  a  debt, 
and  of  one  thousand  dollars  received  from  Mr.  Nesbitt,  of 
New  York,  as  a  contribution  to  election  expenses.  He 
exhibited  the  cancelled  draft  for  one  thousand  dollars, 
bought  with  Nesbitt' s  contribution  the  same  day — June 


FORTY-SECOND  CONGRESS.  405 

22d,  1868 — and  sent  to  the  State  Republican  Committee  of 
Indiana.1 

Moses  Dillon,  cashier  of  the  Sergeant-at-Arms,  testified  : 
' '  2  think  I  paid  all  those  checks  payable  to  initials  to  Mr, 
Ames.'"  2  When  he  was  first  before  the  committee,  Mr. 
Dillon  said  he  did  not  recollect  to  whom  he  paid  them. 
In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Colfax,  he  said  that  when  he  gave  this 
testimony  he  had  a  strong  impression  that  he  had  paid  the 
checks  to  Ames,  but  had  been  warned  by  his  employer,  the 
Sergeant-at-Arms,  against  testifying  to  an  impression  as  a 
recollection.8  Upon  his  second  appearance  before  the  com- 

1.  Poland  Report,  pp.  493-497. 

2.  Poland  Report,  p.  479. 

3.  Following  is  Mr.  Dillon's  letter  : 

"  OFFICE  OF  SERGEANT-AT-ARMS,  HOUSE  OP  REPRESENTATIVES,  j 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  March  2,  1873.        f 

"DEAR  SIR  :  When  Ames  made  the  deposit  of  ten  thousand  dollars  in  June,  1868,  in 
this  office,  my  mind  was  naturally  excited  as  to  the  purpose  he  had  in  view,  and  was  all  at 
sea  till  the  checks  came  to  be  presented.  Then  I  surmised  that  Ames  was  the  acting  chair- 
man of  some  investigating  committee,  and  that,  as  the  Contingent  Fund  of  the  House 
was  exhausted,  he  was  paying  the  expense  of  the  committee  himself  till  an  appropriation 
should  be  made.  I  am  very  confident  that  the  checks  to  initials  or  bearer  were  all  paid  to 
Mr.  Ames  himself,  and  especially  the  one  marked  '  to  S.  C.  or  bearer.'  I  then  thought  he 
was  himself  drawing  the  lion's  share  of  his  own  deposit. 

"  These  thoughts  had  passed  out  of  my  mind  till  Mr.  Ames  came  into  the  office  this 
session  and  demanded  that  his  checks  should  be  shown  him.  The  moment  I  saw  them, 
I  recollected  all  these  thoughts  of  over  four  years  before  as  vividly  as  though  they  had  oc- 
curred the  day  before,  and  as  soon  as  Mr.  Ames  had  retired  I  remarked  to  Mr.  Ordway, 
the  Sergeant-at-Arms,  that  I  had  paid  that  twelve-hundred-dollar  'S.  C.1  check  to  Mr. 
Ames  himself,  and  how  I  had  paid  it— namely,  in  two  five-hundred  and  two  one-hundred 
dollar  notes.  I  was  remonstrated  with,  however,  and  urged  not  to  testify,  under  oath,  to 
such  belief,  as  it  was  impossible  that  I  should  recollect  transactions  of  such  a  character 
for  four  years.  Being  unfamiliar  with  the  laws  of  evidence,  I  very  naturally  did  not  at 
first  state  my  strong  impressions,  but  testified  as  to  the  facts  only.  At  my  second  exami- 
nation, however,  I  freely  stated  these  strong  impressions,  and  if  I  had  had  the  self-pos- 
session of  one  accustomed  to  the  courts,  I  would  have  stated  the  foundation  of  these  de- 
cided impressions. 

"This  strong  impression  that  I  had  paid  this  '  S.  C.'  check  to  Ames  was  confirmed  by 
himself  in  answer  to  a  question  I  put  to  him  only  the  day  before  my  second  examination. 
I  asked  him  :  *  Did  I  not  pay  that  check  to  you,  Mr.  Ames  ? '  And  he  replied  :  '  I  think 
it  very  likely.'  Indeed,  the  more  I  have  thought  of  the  whole  matter,  the  more  firmly  I 
am  convinced  that  Mr.  Ames  drew  the  money  himself.  If  he  had,  when  writing  it,  in- 
tended it  for  you,  why  did  he  not,  as  with  several  others,  who  have  acknowledged  the 
receipt  of  the  money,  write  the  name  in  full  ?  All  the  members  who  are  charged  with 
the  initial  checks  (Colfax,  Kelley.  and  Garfleld)  deny  ever  having  seen  them,  and  I  re- 
peat, as  I  testified  at  my  second  examination,  that  my  very  strong  impression  is,  that  I 
paid  all  the  initial  checks  to  Mr.  Ames  himself.  Tendering  my  congratulation  on  what 
I  regard  as  your  triumphant  vindication  from  the  well-arranged  plot  to  injure  you  in  the 
estimation  of  the  people,  I  am  very  respectfully  and  truly, 

•       "  MOSES  DILLON,  Cashier. 

"Hon.  SCHUYLER  COLFAX." 


406  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

mittee,  Mr.  Dillon  still  declined  to  testify  to  a  positive  rec- 
ollection, but  said  his  impression  that  he  paid  the  initial 
checks  to  Oakes  Ames  was  so  strong  that  he  had  no  doubt 
of  it  in  his  own  mind.1 

Mr.  John  T.  Drew,  of  Burlington,  Vt.,  then  of  the 
Washington  law-firm  of  Drew,  Bliss  &  Holmes,  in  Paris  at 
the  time  of  the  investigation,  wrote  to  Judge  Poland  in  the 
June  following  that  he  saw  Oakes  Ames  himself  cash  this  dis- 
puted check  and  pay  the  money  to  a  man  whom  he,  Drew,  did  not 
know*  The  Hon.  Elihu  B.  Washburne,  then  Minister  of 

1.  Poland  Report,  pp.  477-481. 

2.  Following  is  Mr.  Drew's  letter  : 

"  BURLINGTON,  VT.,  June  23,  1873. 
"HON.  LUKE  P.  POLAND,  M.C.: 

''  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  You  will  remember  my  being  in  Washington  during  the  spring  and 
summer  of  1868  in  charge  of  the  cotton  claim  of  L.  Marchant  &  Co.  While  so  engaged, 
I  called,  by  advice  of  yourself,  Senator  Morrill,  Senator  Sumner,  and  General  Logan,  upon 
several  members  of  the  House  and  Senate,  to  explain  the  peculiarly  strong  points  in  that 
case,  and  to  show  how  it  differed  from  most  cotton  claims.  On  the  20th  and  22d  of  June, 
1868,  as  my  diary  for  that  year  shows,  I  called  upon  Hon.  Oakes  Ames,  of  Massachusetts. 
The  first  call  was  with  a  note  of  introduction  from  either  Hon.  W.  B.  Washburne  or  Hon. 
F.  E.  Woodbridge — I  do  not  remember  which.  The  second  time  I  met  Mr.  Ames  I  had  a 
letter  from  Major-General  Veatch,  of  Indiana,  which  I  read  to  him. 

"  I  met  Mr.  Ames  near  the  door  of  the  Speaker's  room,  on  the  right,  as  you  face  it. 
He  was  talking  with  a  gentleman  on  New  Orleans  matters.  I  stood  near  him,  to  claim 
his  attention  next,  and,  without  paying  any  attention  to  the  conversation,  could  not  help 
catching  something  of  its  purport.  Mr.  Ames  remarked  to  me  he  would  be  out  directly, 
and  went  into  the  House,  and  soon  came  back  with  a  check  in  his  hand,  and  saying  to  me, 
'  Now,  then,1  walked  along  to  the  Sergeant-at- Arms'  desk.  I  walked  by  his  side,  and  was 
stating  my  case.  Some  one  was  drawing  money  at  the  desk  of  the  Sergeant-at -Arms  at 
the  time,  or  getting  some  changed,  and  we  stood  in  the  room,  and  I  read  the  letter  of 
General  Veatch,  which  so  strongly  vouched  for  the  loyalty  of  my  clients. 

"  While  we  were  talking,  after  the  reading,  I  noticed  the  check  in  Mr.  Ames's  hands, 
because  he  was  all  the  time  looking  at  it,  seemingly,  over  the  tops  of  his  glasses.  I  re- 
member very  distinctly  that  it  was  drawn  to  'S.  C.  or  bearer,'  and  was  for  twelve  hun- 
dred dollars.  I  know  I  thought  to  myself,  '  Who  the  dickens  is  S.  C.  or  bearer  ?'  This 
check  was  then  and  there  cashed  at  the  desk  of  the  Sergeant-at- Arms,  and  I  well  remem- 
ber one  five-hundred-dollar  bill  and  several  one-hundred-dollar  bills.  Walking  back  to 
the  gentleman  he  had  first  been  talking  to,  Mr.  Ames  handed  him  this  money,  and  re- 
ceived some  kind  of  a  written  document  in  return.  I  have  never  seen  this  gentleman 
since. 

"  You  know  I  was  in  Europe  during  your  investigation  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  frauds. 
The  first  information  I  had  of  the  '  S.  C.  or  bearer '  twelve-hundred-dollar  check  was  at  the 
American  Legation  in  Paris.  I  remembered  then  this  circumstance  of  the  check,  and 
told  Mr.  Washburne,  our  Minister  to  France  at  that  time,  that  I  knew  Coif  ax  never  go1 
the  money,  and  that  I  thought  I  knew  who  did.  I  also  informed  Mr.  Frederick  Blossom, 
of  New  York,  who  was  for  some  time  my  travelling  companion.  He  suggested  I  had 
better  telegraph  you  or  Coif  ax  ;  but  the  dislike  I  felt  to  becoming  in  any  way  mixed  up  in 
the  Credit  Mobilier  scandal,  together  with  the  need  of  spending  my  time  in  the  investi- 
gations into  wine-importing  frauds,  which  investigations  I  was  making  in  the  interest  of 
our  Government,  induced  me  to  % ep  silent,  thinking  I  should  be  home  before  Congress 
adjourned. 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  407 

the  United  States  to  France,  wrote  Colfax  in  confirmation 
of  Drew,  as  to  his  having  been  at  the  Embassy  and  as  to 
what  he  said  there.1  On  the  pth  day  of  August,  1873, 
General  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  of  New  York,  wrote  a  letter  to 
Senator  Henry  B.  Anthony,  of  Rhode  Island,  in  which  he 
said:  "After  the  adjournment  of  Congress  and  on  or 
about  the  iyth  of  March  I  had  a  conversation  with  Mr. 
Ames  in  Boston  touching  the  statements  of  Dillon  and 
Scott  Smith  respecting  the  twelve-hundred-dollar  '  S.  C.' 
check,  and  Mr.  Ames  then  stated  to  me  substantially  as 
stated  by  them — that  it  was  likely  he  drew  the  money  himself 
on  that  check  ;  that  Mr.  Colfax  never  saw  it  ;  and  that  in  this 
particular  Mr.  Colfax  had  suffered  injustice. ' '  a 

"  On  my  returning  to  Washington,  Congress  had  adjourned.  I  conferred  with  Mr.  H. 
C.  Bliss,  my  law  partner,  Mr.  A.  H.  Byington,  of  Connecticut,  and  a  few  other  friends, 
asking  them  to  keep  the  matter  a  secret  until  I  had  time  to  see  if  I  could  not  trace  out 
the  man  to  whom  I  saw  Ames  pay  the  proceeds  of  the  '  S.  C.  or  bearer '  check. 

"As  I  had  charge  of  the  Rob  Roy  judgment  against  A.  S.  Mansfield,  Oakes  Ames,  et 
al.,  I  had  occasion  to  call  on  Mr.  Ames  in  April  last,  and  I  related  to  him  the  circum- 
stances of  the  check,  and  asked  him  who  the  man  was  to  whom  he  then  paid  the  money. 
His  reply  was  in  substance  that  it  was  none  of  my  business,  and  I  assented  to  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  views.  Previous  to  the  death  of  Mr.  Ames,  and  since,  Mr.  Colfax,  to 
whom  Mr.  Byington,  against  my  request,  had  imparted  this  information,  has  urged  me  to 
make  a  full  statement  of  it  for  the  press. 

"  After  thinking  over  the  matter  for  some  time,  I  have  concluded  to  send  to  you,  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Investigation,  this  statement  of  facts,  that  you  may  use 
it  as  you  may  deem  most  just  to  Mr.  Colfax,  whom  alone  it  affects. 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  JOHN  T.  DREW,  Counsellor-at-Law, 

"No.  1332  P  Street,  Washington,  D.  C." 


1.  Following  is  Minister  Washburne's  letter : 


1  LEGATION  DBS  ETATS-UNIS,  I 


PARIS,  July  31,  1873. 

"  HON.  SCHUTLEB  COLFAX  :  DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  received  your  favor  of  the  7th  instant. 
I  have  seen  the  statement  of  Mr.  Drew.  It  is  true  that  he  was  at  this  Legation  pending 
the  Credit  Mobilier  investigation  before  the  Poland  Committee  at  Washington,  last  win- 
ter. I  well  recollect  our  conversation  on  the  subject  of  the  '  S.  C.  or  bearer '  check,  and 
his  statement  that  he  had  reason  to  know  that  you  did  not  get  the  money.  My  recollec- 
tion of  the  conversation  is  confirmed  by  one  of  my  secretaries,  who  was  present  and 
heard  it.  I  understood  from  Mr.  Drew  that  he  was  abroad  for  the  purpose  of  making 
certain  investigations  in  regard  to  frauds  committed  on  the  revenues  of  the  United 
States. 

"  Yours,  very  truly, 

"E.  B.  WASHBURNE." 

2.  Following  is  General  Fisk's  letter : 

"STAMFORD,  CONN.,  August  9,  1873. 
"HON.  H.  B.  ANTHONY,  Providence,  B.  I. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  In  acknowledgment  and  reply  to  your  favor  of  the  5th  instant,  I 
beg  leave  to  say  that  there  has  already  appeared  in  the  last  number  of  Harper's  Weekly 


408  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Finally,  Oakes  Ames  never  tendered  the  twenty  shares 
of  Credit  Mobilier  stock  and  its  admittedly  withheld 
dividends  to  Schuyler  Colfax.  Oakes  Ames  died  in  May 
after  the  adjournment ;  his  estate  was  appraised  ;  no  Credit 
Mobilier  stock  appears  of  record  among  his  assets.  His 
estate  has  never  tendered  the  stock  and  its  dividends  to 
Schuyler  Colfax.  Since  acts  speak  louder  than  words,  the 
inference  is  unavoidable  that  neither  Oakes  Ames  nor  his  heirs 
ever  regarded  the  stock  and  its  dividends  as  Schuyler  Colfax' s  property, 
but  as  their  own. * 

The  issue  of  veracity  between  Schuyler  Colfax  and 
Oakes  Ames  is  now  before  the  reader,  with  everything 

an  article  entitled  '  Mr.  Colfax  and  Oakes  Ames,'  in  which  the  information  to  which  you 
refer  has  been  made  public. 

"My  regard  for  both  of  the  gentlemen  whose  names  became  unhappily  involved  in 
the  Credit  Mobilier  scandal  was  such  as  to  lead  me  to  have  frequent  interviews  with  Mr. 
Ames  during  the  progress  of  the  investigation  last  winter,  meeting  him  as  I  did  at  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  as  he  passed  to  and  from  Washington.  I  held  Mr.  Ames  in  very  high 
esteem.  I  believed  him  to  be  a  noble  man,  and  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of  the  country 
for  the  sublime  faith  and  courage  with  which  he  wielded  his  immense  resources  in  the 
successful  prosecution  of  a  great  national  work.  I  loved  Mr.  Colfax  as  a  brother. 

"  After  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  and  on  or  about  the  17th  of  March,  I  had  a  con- 
versation with  Mr.  Ames  in  Boston  touching  the  statements  of  Dillon  and  Scott  Smith 
respecting  the  twelve-hundred-dollar  '  S.  C.  or  bearer '  check,  and  Mr.  Ames  then  stated 
to  me  substantially  as  stated  by  them,  that  it  was  likely  he  drew  the  money  himself  on 
the  check,  and  that  Mr.  Colfax  never  eaw  it,  and  that  in  this  particular  Mr.  Colfax  had 
suffered  injustice.  I  communicated  this  information  to  Mr.  Oliver  Hoyt,  of  Connecticut, 
immediately  on  my  return  to  New  York,  and  Mr.  Colfax  was  advised  of  these  later  ex- 
pressions of  Mr.  Ames. 

"  Mr.  Colfax  wrote  me,  requesting  that  I  procure  from  Mr.  Ames  a  similar  statement 
for  the  public.  Mr.  Colfax's  communication,  although  written  prior  to  the  decease  of 
Mr.  Ames,  did  not  reach  me  (as  I  was  then  West)  until  after  that  event.  I  wrote  Mr. 
Colfax  that  I  would  confer  with  Mr.  Oliver  Ames,  as  doubtless  there  had  been  some  con- 
versation between  the  brothers  of  like  import  as  that  with  myself.  I  have  not  met  Mr. 
Oliver  Ames  since  his  brother's  death,  but  a  letter  from  him  since  the  publication  in 
Harper's  Weekly  advises  me  that  he  received  no  expression  from  his  brother  in  harmony 
with  the  statements  made  to  me. 

"  I  hope  there  may  yet  be  developments  which  will  clear  away  all  doubt,  and  com- 
pletely vindicate  the  names  of  men  whose  characters  for  truth  and  virtue  the  country  can 
ill  afford  to  have  remain  under  any  cloud  whatever. 

"  Very  truly  yours, 

"CLINTON  B.  FISK." 

1.  Oakes  Ames  persisted  before  the  Poland  Committee  that  the  Hon.  William  D.  Kel- 
ley,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  the  owner  of  ten  shares  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock.  Mr.  Kelley 
denied  the  ownership,  and  met  the  continued  assertion  of  Oakes  Ames  by  ordering  him 
to  hand  the  stock  to  Judge  Poland.  Ames  did  so.  Judge  Poland,  at  Mr.  Kelley's  direc- 
tion, passed  the  stock  to  United  States  Treasurer  Spinner.  Mr.  Spinner  sent  it  to  Ames, 
requesting  him  to  properly  transfer  it  to  Kelley,  that  the  donation  might  be  binding,  and 
the  Treasury  realize  the  money  on  it.  After  some  delay  Mr.  Ames  replied,  declining  to 
return  the  stock  at  all. 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  409 

elicited  at  the  investigation,  or  that  came  to  light  after- 
ward, which  had  a  material  bearing  on  it.  The  charge 
against  him  was  of  such  a  nature  that  he  could  be  abso- 
lutely cleared  only  by  its  withdrawal,  or  by  the  production 
of  the  man  who  received  the  money.  Until  Ames  died 
Colfax  cherished  the  hope  that  he  would,  at  length,  clearly 
recollect  the  truth,  and  withdraw  the  charge.  Afterward, 
until  his  estate  was  settled,  Colfax  believed  that  his  effects 
would  disclose  unquestionable  evidence  that  he  had  been 
in  error.  Meanwhile,  Mr.  Colfax  co-operated  with  Mr. 
Drew  in  a  search  for  the  man  who  received  the  money — a 
search  never  wholly  abandoned  while  Drew  lived.  Mr. 
Drew  was  ignorant  of  this  man's  name,  and  the  incident 
was  five  years  past  when  the  hunt  began.  It  was  almost 
like  trying  to  find  and  identify  one  particular  drop  of 
water  in  Lake  Erie.  But  through  his  connection  as  an  at- 
torney with  some  matters  in  the  South,  in  which  Ames  was 
also  concerned,  Drew  believed  he  had  a  trace.  He  fol- 
lowed it,  or  tried  to,  but  it  amounted  to  nothing.  A  vo- 
luminous correspondence  between  him  and  Colfax,  continu- 
ing four  years,  is  in  existence.1  Twice  Colfax  paid  three 

1.  Mr.  Colfax  wrote  Mr.  Drew  May  15th.  1873,  as  follows  :  "  I  have  read  your  statement 
several  times  over,  and  the  oftener  I  read  it  the  more  I  hope  and  pray  you  may  be  able  to 
find  the  man  you  saw  Mr.  Ames  pay  that  twelve  hundred  dollars  to  in  June,  1868.  I  see 
plainly  enough  that  you  have  a  suspicion  as  to  who  he  is,  as  you  say  his  initials  were  not 
S.  C.,  if  you  are  correct.  And  you  heard  '  New  Orleans '  in  their  conversation.  If  I  had 
known  of  this  statement  of  yours,  I  would  have  insisted,  when  Ames's  memorandum- 
books  were  finally  before  the  committee,  on  an  examination  of  them  as  to  the  point  to 
whom  he  paid  twelve  hundred  dollars  about  that  time.  He  would  only  allow  a  public 
examination  of  the  particular  pages  on  which  he  had  Credit  Mobilier  entries,  but  the 
committee  made  a  private  examination  of  the  books.  In  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Ames's 
estate,  I  suppose  this  financial  transaction  of  his  with  this  unknown  person  might  be 
got  at,  unless  it  is  all  squared  up  ere  this.  But  probably  in  five  years  it  was  settled  up. 

"  I  am  convinced,  on  reading  this  statement  of  yours,  that  Ames  was  being  pressed  by 
this  man  for  money  on  some  New  Orleans  transaction  of  theirs,  possibly  some  kind  of  a 
partnership  ;  and  that,  knowing  I  had  abandoned  the  stock  to  him,  and  yet  wishing  to 
make  his  Credit  Mobilier  partners  in  June,  1868,  believe  that  he  had  paid  that  dividend 
to  all  the  Congressmen  to  whom,  according  to  his  published  letters  of  January,  1868,  to 
McComb,  he  had  disposed  of  this  stock,  he  drew  his  check,  inserting  the  '  S.  C.'  as  a 
memorandum,  cashed  it,  and  paid  it  to  this  man,  not  having  any  other  fund  at  Washing- 
ton just  then  to  pay  him  from. 

"  I  do  not  think,  at  that  time,  he  intended  to  do  any  injustice  to  me,  and  he  swore  in 
December  he  did  not  remember  having  paid  me  any  dividend  ;  but  when  he  was  required 
to  bring  his  books,  checks,  etc.,  before  the  committee,  he  had  either  to  acknowledge 
that  the  initial  checks  were  frauds,  or  swear  as  he  finally  did.  He  took  receipts  for  the 
checks  with  names  [written  in]  in  full ;  but  when  he  found,  after  a  thorough  search,  he 


410  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

hundred  dollars — once  toward  the  expense  of  an  agent  to 
New  Orleans,  and  again  to  Liverpool.  Drew  would  ac- 
cept no  compensation  for  his  labors.  He  died  in  1879, 
having  amply  proved  his  sincerity  and  disinterestedness. 

The  author  called  on  the  sons  of  Oakes  Ames  and  others 
of  his  Boston  friends  in  March,  1885,  and  was  led  to  the 
conclusion  that  Oakes  Ames's  estate  disclosed  nothing  on 
the  subject  ;  that  whatever  record  of  this  matter  ever  ex- 
isted was  in  Ames's  diary  of  1868,  which  was  taken  from 
Judge  Poland's  committee-room  by  Horace  F.  Clark,  and 
has  never  since  been  seen  ;  that  whatever  knowledge,  if 
any,  was  treasured  in  Ames's  mind  about  it  perished  with 
him  ;  and  that  unless  the  man  who  received  the  money  be 
some  time  found,  with  contemporary  written  evidence,  the 
truth,  as  between  Schuyler  Colfax  and  Oakes  Ames,  must 
rest  for  all  time  on  their  respective  credibility,  bearing  in 
mind  their  lives,  their  characters,  and  their  circumstances. 

If  they  were  both  honest  men — both  were  so  held  by 
their  life-long  neighbors,  the  supreme  test  of  character — 
one  of  them  must  have  been  in  error  ;  and  if  either  of  them 
was  in  error,  their  respective  circumstances  and  character- 
istics favor  the  belief  that  it  was  Oakes  Ames,  and  not 
Schuyler  Colfax.  Ames's  business  enterprises  were  im- 
mense and  coextensive  with  the  Union  ;  men  were  in 
almost  constant  waiting  on  him  during  the  sessions  of  Con- 
gress for  business  direction  or  consultation  ;  transactions 
like  this,  involving  at  most  but  a  few  hundred  dollars, 

had  no  receipt  for  any  of  these  initial  checks— for  which  receipts  were  far  more  neces- 
sary—I think  he  must  have  realized  that  he  had,  intentionally  or  unintentionally,  done 
cruel  injustice  to  me,  and  that  I  had  stated  the  truth. 

"  I  need  hardly  add,  if  there  should  he  any  expense  in  finding  that  unknown  man,  I 
would  cheerfully  pay  it.  I  should  think  he  would  he  willing  to  testify.  But  whether  he 
is  found  or  not,  I  shall  always  feel  grateful  to  you  for  your  statement,  and  shall  always 
consider  myself  your  obliged  friend." 

The  last  letter  of  the  series,  on  Mr.  Colfax's  part,  is  dated  May  5th,  1877,  and  is  as 
follows  :  "  You  remember  you  promised  to  write  me  what  you  effected  in  England  in  my 
case  ;  or,  if  failing,  as  I  feared,  what  obstacles  were  in  the  way.  I  had  no  hope  from  the 
Vermont  clergyman  who  undertook  it,  and  to  whom  I  believe  you  said  you  paid  the 
three  hundred  dollars  I  sent.  But  I  have  had  no  report  as  to  what  he  did.  You,  with 
your  indefatigability  and  personal  interest  in  the  matter,  I  had  more  hope  from.  Please 
write  me  all  about  it." 

Mr.  Drew  was  himself  in  Europe  at  this  time,  and  probably  never  got  this  letter.  At 
all  events,  he  never  replied  to  it. 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  41 1 

were  of  very  little  importance  among  his  vast  and  widely- 
scattered  concerns.  Colfax' s  business,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  limited  to  keeping  about  fifty  thousand  dollars  profit- 
ably invested,  and  he  was  by  nature  a  man  of  details.  He 
could  not  have  received  the  money  and  forgotten  it.1  It  is 
conceivable  that  Ames  might  have  cashed  the  check  and 
used  the  money,  and  afterward  have  forgotten  it.  Only 
upon  this  theory  can  the  direct  clashing  in  the  testimony 
of  these  two  distinguished  men  be  reasonably  reconciled. 

Colfax  was  of  the  opinion,  although  in  some  moods  he 
took  a  less  charitable  view  of  it,  that  this  was  probably  the 
true  explanation.  In  a  letter  of  April  22d,  1873,  to  General 
Clinton  B.  Fisk,  he  says  : 

"  I  am  as  certain  as  I  am  of  my  existence  that  that  initial  check  to 
'  S.  C.'  was  a  memorandum  check.  I  know  I  never  received  it,  or  any- 
thing else  from  him.  My  conviction  is  that  he  drew  the  money  on  it  him- 
self ;  thought  it  possible  I  might  conclude  afterward  to  still  keep  the 
stock,  when  he  expected  to  pay  it  to  me.  Or  he,  perhaps,  thought  when 
the  McComb  scare  was  over,  which  he  expected  would  be  in  a  little  while, 
he  would  laugh  at  me  for  being  frightened  out  of  it  by  a  lawsuit,  and  then 
pay  over  to  me  according  to  the  entries  in  his  memorandum-book.  When 
he  failed,  however,  and  I  told  him  to  let  the  money  go  that  I  had  paid, 
he  regarded  it  then  as  certainly  and  finally  abandoned  ;  but  his  own 
troubles  and  embarrassments,  perhaps,  drove  the  details  of  a  small  matter 
like  this  out  of  his  mind.  His  testimony  before  the  committee  seemed 
to  me  to  show  that  this  was  really  running  in  his  mind,  vaguely  perhaps  ; 
but  he  preferred  to  testify  by  his  memorandum-book.  During  the  inves- 
tigation, the  newspaper  syndicate,  which  attacked  me  so  bitterly  and  un- 
justly at  the  Philadelphia  Convention — my  mother's  dying  condition  for 
years  had  closed  my  house,  and  they  took  it  I  felt  lifted  above  them,  and 
hence  did  not  treat  them  as  before — were  around  Mr.  Ames,  night  and 
day,  encouraging  him  to  testify  against  those  out  of  whose  involvement 
they  could  make  sensational  telegrams.  I  think  he  scarcely  realized  how 

1.  Mr.  Joseph  Medill  writes  the  author:  "  Mr.  Colfax  was  a  man  of  remarkably  retentive 
memory,  especially  for  pecuniary  matters.  He  used  to  take  business  for  my  paper,  and  I 
have  often  had  reason  to  marvel  at  his  memory  for  details.  He  began  life  with  nothing, 
in  a  locality  where  money  was  scarce,  and  where  it  is  still  scarce.  His  business  was 
sustained  by  receipt  of  small  sums.  His  mind  seemed  to  grasp  and  retain  his  business  to 
the  minutest  detail.  He  was  actually  a  poor  man  until  some  years  after  he  retired  from 
public  life.  He  filled  high  positions  for  many  years  on  scanty  pecuniary  resources.  It 
is  impossible,  as  he  said,  that  he  could  have  had  an  addition  of  twelve  hundred  dollars 
to  his  income  and  forgotten  it ;  and  receiving,  and  remembering  it,  he  was  from  tempera- 
ment the  least  likely  of  any  man  I  ever  knew  to  have  volunteered  a  denial  of  it  in  the 
face  of  the  whole  world,  on  the  slender  chance  that  Oakes  Ames  might  have  forgotten  it, 
and  that  it  could  have  occurred  and  left  no  trace." 


412  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

he  was  urged  on  by  them.  It  surprised  me,  for  I  had  testified  the  exact 
truth,  and  his  talk  about  my  testimony  with  Crounse,  Alley,  Scott  Smith, 
and  others  show  this." 

The  Hon.  George  W.  McCrary,  of  Iowa,  who  was  a 
member  of  the  Poland  Committee,  and  who  resigned  a 
United  States  Circuit  Judgeship  to  be  chief  counsel  for  the 
Atchison,  Topeka  £  Santa  Fe  Railroad  Company,  was, 
and  is,  of  the  same  opinion.  Judge  McCrary  wrote  the 
author,  May  22d,  1885,  as  follows  : 

'*  My  own  confidence  in  his  [Colfax's]  integrity  was  not  in  the  least 
shaken  by  the  testimony  before  the  Poland  Committee  in  the  investiga- 
tion in  question.  I  believed  then,  and  I  believe  still,  that  Mr.  Ames  was 
mistaken  as  to  the  fact  of  having  paid  a  dividend  on  Credit  Mobilier  stock 
to  Mr.  Colfax.  The  positive  testimony  of  the  latter,  that  upon  investiga- 
tion he  resolved  to  decline  the  stock,  and  that  he  never  received  any 
dividend  upon  it,  was,  in  my  opinion,  the  truth.  Mr.  Ames  may  have 
forgotten  the  particulars  of  what,  to  a  man  of  his  great  fortune,  must 
have  been  a  small  matter.  But  Mr.  Colfax,  who  was  a  man  of  small 
means,  could  not  have  forgotten  the  fact,  if  he  had  actually  taken  the 
stock  and  received  the  sum  of  twelve  hundred  dollars  on  it.  It  was  im- 
possible for  me,  at  least,  to  doubt  the  truth  of  his  statement  on  this  sub- 
ject ;  and  while  I  am  equally  confident  that  Mr.  Ames  meant  to  be  truth- 
ful, I  can  understand  very  well  how  he  may  have  forgotten  the  facts  and 
been  misled  by  his  loose  memoranda." 

This  idea  occurred  to  other  business  men  of  wide  ex- 
perience, and  had  the  public  mind  been  in  its  normal  state, 
would  undoubtedly  have  met  with  general  acceptance. 
For  example,  Mr.  Jay  Cooke,  the  Philadelphia  banker, 
wrote  him  : 

"  Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  Oakes  Ames  really  believes  he  has 
paid  you  the  money  ?  Methinks  the  statements  of  both  parties  can  be 
reconciled.  You  certainly  never  received  it,  and  have  accounted  satisfac- 
torily for  all  your  receipts.  He  evidently  thinks  he  handed  you  the  money 
he  got  on  that  check  ;  but  we  who  observe  his  loose  way  of  doing  things 
account  for  it  in  this  way — that  he  put  the  money  in  his  pocket,  intending 
it  for  you,  but  used  it  in  other  ways  and  has  forgotten  all  about  it." 

And  the  Hon.  William  D.  Kelley  wrote  him  : 

"  I  have  heard  many  things  said  of  you  among  our  best  citizens  and 
most  competent  accountants  that  would  be  pleasant  for  you  to  read.  Mr. 
John  Welsh,  brother  of  William  Welsh,  the  Indian  Commissioner,  told  me 
that  he  had  studied  your  case  closely,  and  had  been  satisfied  by  Mr. 


FORTY-SECOND  CONGRESS.  413 

Ames's  testimony  and  his  resort  to  an  initial  check,  the  common  practice 
of  his  firm  and  other  business  houses  when  accounts  had  been  aban- 
doned by  the  failure  or  rescinding  of  the  contract,  that  your  statement 
was  correct." 

He  received  many  such  suggestive  letters,  and  hundreds 
expressive  of  confidence  and  sympathy.  He  suffered  in- 
tensely. "  God  knows  my  innocence,"  he  wrote  a  friend 
in  the  darkest  hour  ;  "  whether  I  can  convince  the  world 
of  it  remains  to  be  seen.  But  I  could  never  have  borne 
what  I  have  if  heart  or  conscience  told  me  I  was  guilty." 
An  observer  says  : 

14  I  watched  Mr.  Colfax  through  all  those  troublous  times.  I  had  fre- 
quent interviews  with  him,  and  saw  him  in  an  agony  of  labor  and  grief 
in  the  efiort  to  recover  the  missing  links  in  the  chain  of  forgotten  circum- 
stances. I  have  seen  him  literally  crushed  to  earth  at  the  thought  that, 
perhaps,  even  his  friends  might  lose  faith  in  him.  In  one  of  the  dark, 
dank  basement  rooms  of  the  Senate  end  of  the  Capitol,  where  the  gas- 
light brings  only  a  dismal  flicker  in  the  brightest  day,  all  through  the  prog- 
ress of  that  investigation  Schuyler  Colfax  spent  every  vacant  moment 
he  could  find.  He  was  looking  through  the  numerous  trunks  of  letters, 
saved  from  the  accumulated  correspondence  of  many  years,  searching  for 
something  which  might  help  explain  the  terrible  mystery  in  connection 
with  that  now  famous  twelve-hundred-dollar  check." 

Writing  him  soon  after  the  adjournment,  General  Fisk 
copied  into  his  letter  the  following  passage  from  *'  The  Old 
Curiosity  Shop,"  apropos  to  Kit's  having  been  imprisoned 
by  the  conspiracy  of  Quilp  and  others  : 

"  Let  moralists  and  philosophers  say  what  they  may,  it  is  very  ques- 
tionable whether  a  guilty  man  would  have  felt  half  as  much  misery  that 
night  as  Kit  did,  being  innocent.  The  world,  being  in  the  constant  com- 
mission of  vast  quantities  of  injustice,  is  a  little  too  apt  to  comfort  itself 
with  the  idea  that  if  the  victim  of  its  falsehood  and  malice  have  a  clear 
conscience,  he  cannot  fail  to  be  sustained  under  his  trials,  and  somehow 
or  other  to  come  right  at  last ;  '  in  which  case,'  say  they  who  have  hunted 
him  down,  '  though  we  certainly  don't  expect  it,  nobody  will  be  better 
pleased  than  we  ; '  whereas  the  world  would  do  well  to  reflect  that  injus- 
tice is  in  itself  to  every  generous  and  properly  constituted  mind  an  injury 
of  all  others  the  most  insufferable,  the  most  torturing,  and  the  most  hard 
to  bear  ;  and  that  many  clear  consciences  have  gone  to  their  account  else- 
where, and  many  sound  hearts  have  been  broken  because  of  this  very 
reason  ;  the  knowledge  of  their  own  deserts  only  aggravating  their  suffer- 
ings and  rendering  them  less  endurable." 


SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

To  which  Mr.  Colfax  replied  : 

"  You  cannot  realize  what  a  blessed  letter  to  me  is  the  welcome  one 
from  you  I  have  just  read.  You  are  so  kind  to  make  that  long  quotation 
from  Dickens— nothing  could  be  more  apposite.  I  have  been  as  sensitive 
as  to  my  character  as  a  woman,  and  being  innocent,  I  have  felt  this  ter- 
rible and  pitiless  storm  of  vituperation  a  thousand  times  more  than  if  I 
had  been  guilty.  When  my  distressed  wife  and  I  have  gone  to  the 
Throne  of  Grace,  night  and  morning,  I  have  asked  :  '  Why  cannot  my 
entire  innocence  be  made  known  as  Thou  knowest  it  ?  '  But  it  seems  I 
am  to  drink  the  cup  to  the  dregs.  It  has  taught  me  how  weak  is  human 
aid  ;  and,  perhaps,  I  needed  that  lesson.  But  it  has  taught  me  also  how 
precious  is  that  friendship  that  is  unchangeable  when  the  hour  of  trial 
comes.  With  all  my  heart  I  thank  you  for  your  words  of  confidence  in 
public  assemblies.  I  have  heard  of  them  twice  from  friends  who  were 
present.  God  bless  you  for  it,  my  friend  !" 

His  services  in  aid  of  all  good  causes  were  sought 
neither  more  nor  less  than  usual  this  winter.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  of  Brooklyn,  wrote  him  i5th  Febru- 
ary :  "  You  have  been  announced  for  three  weeks  past  to 
speak  on  Temperance  in  my  church  on  Thursday  evening, 
March  i3th.  Do  not,  on  any  account,  fail  to  come."  The 
Baltimore  American  of  February  ist  was  *'  happy  to  an- 
nounce that  Vice-President  Colfax  will  deliver  his  prom- 
ised address  on  Sunday  afternoon  at  Masonic  Temple,  on 
the  occasion  of  the  great  Temperance  demonstration  which 
has  been  for  some  time  in  preparation.  We  can  promise 
him  a  hearty  and  cordial  reception — such  a  reception  as 
has  never  been  awarded  to  him  in  Baltimore — one  that 
will  convince  him  that  popular  sentiment  here  is  not  influ- 
enced by  libellous  charges  of  the  financial  hucksters  of 
Washington.  The  feeling  of  unbounded  confidence  in  his 
purity  of  character,  truth,  and  personal  integrity  has  been 
rather  increased  than  diminished  by  this  effort  to  crush 
him." 

This  was  shown  on  the  occasion  of  his  address  before 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  at  Philadelphia, 
January  28th.  In  allusion  to  this  reception,  the  Philadel- 
phia Bulletin  complainingly  exclaimed  : 

"  The  enthusiastic  expression  of  the  moral  and  religious  forces  of  the 
community  culminated  upon  the  person  and  presence  of  the  Vice-Presi- 


FORTY-SECOND  CONGRESS.  415 

dent  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Colfax's  appearance  on  the  stage  and  his 
introduction  to  the  audience  were  the  occasion  of  an  outburst  of  excited 
applause,  which  seemed  to  affect  and  sway  the  whole  assembly  with  un- 
controlled emotion.  Not  the  '  young  men  '  alone  swelled  this  chorus  of 
welcome.  '  Young  men  and  maidens,  old  men  and  children,'  praised  the 
name  of  Schuyler  Colfax,  as  if  he  alone  were  excellent,  and  his  glory 
were  above  all  in  the  earth.  Grave  and  reverend  divines,  the  leaders, 
clerical  and  lay,  in  many  of  the  best  works  that  have  been  done  in  this 
city  for  the  cause  of  true  religion  and  pure  morals,  rapped  and  clapped, 
and  waved  and  raved,  tramped  and  stamped  amid  the  thunderings  that 
greeted  Vice-President  Colfax,  arriving,  weary  and  worn  by  his  rapid 
travel,  from  the  committee-room  of  Judge  Poland  to  the  boards  of  the 
Academy  of  Music." 

While  moral  assassins  were  making  money  by  robbing 
him  of  his  reputation,  it  naturally  occurred  to  a  New  York 
thief  that  it  was  a  good  time  to  rob  him  of  his  purse,  and 
his  wife  and  sister  of  their  jewelry.  The  tin  box  in  which 
he  kept  his  securities  had  been  sent  on  from  South  Bend. 
He  had  hoped  to  find  a  certain  very  important  letter  in  it. 
About  the  2oth  of  February,  while  he  and  his  wife  and 
sister  were  at  the  Capitol,  the  thief,  who  had  been  hanging 
around  the  hotel  for  some  days,  broke  into  his  rooms,  and 
stole  the  tin  box  and  whatever  else  he  could  lay  his  hands 
on.  Colfax  immediately  filed  a  schedule  of  the  contents 
of  the  box  with  the  Chief  of  Police.  The  property  was  re- 
covered by  detectives  while  in  transit  to  Philadelphia  in 
an  express-car.  It  consisted  almost  entirely  of  registered 
bonds,  worthless  to  any  one  but  the  real  owner.  The  hos- 
tile press  made  this  affair  the  pretext  for  fresh  falsehoods. 
The  amount  stolen  was  multiplied  by  two  ;  it  was  alleged 
that  he  smothered  the  matter  as  much  as  he  could,  and 
neglected  to  prosecute  the  thief,  because  the  property  itself 
was  evidence  of  his  corrupt  practices  ;  would,  indeed, 
have  proved  him  guilty  of  the  worst  charges  pending 
against  him.  "  All  this  [the  robbery]  sinks  into  insignifi- 
cance," he  wrote  Mr.  Witter,  of  Denver,  "  compared  to 
the  attacks  recently  so  malignantly  made,  and  apparently 
so  largely  believed  against  my  character,  as  to  which  I 
have  always  been  as  sensitive  as  a  pure  woman  would  be 
to  reflections  on  her  virtue."  Why  should  he  prosecute 


416  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

the  thief  who  merely  stole  his  bonds,  even  though  they 
represented  the  accumulated  savings  of  a  lifetime  of  hard 
work  and  economy,  while  the  thieves  of  his  reputation  were 
not  only  beyond  the  reach  of  the  public  or  private  prose- 
cutor, but  were  able  to  pose  in  the  eye  of  mankind  as  the 
peculiar  if  not  exclusive  exemplars  of  civic  virtue  ?  It  is 
needless  to  say  that,  distracted  as  he  was,  he  would  have 
prosecuted  the  thief  if  that  individual  had  not  escaped  de- 
tection. 

Near  the  end  of  February  he  wrote  as  follows  to  Mr. 
Alfred  B.  Miller,  of  the  South  Bend  Tribune : 

f '  Accept  my  hearty  thanks  for  the  noble  and  true  manner  in  which 
you  have  stood  by  me  through  this  terrible  trial,  which  would  have  killed 
me  if  I  had  not  been  innocent.  If  I  had  been  a  murderer,  I  think  these 
hostile  correspondents  here  could  not  have  pursued  me  more  malignantly. 
You  don't  know  how  it  disgusts  me  with  public  life,  its  malicious  plots, 
its  wicked  injustice,  and  its  downright  falsifications.  Your  letter,  and. 
Dr.  Humphreys',  and  others  received  to-night  gladdened  me  more  than 
you  can  imagine.  It  gratifies  me,  too,  to  hear  Senators  talk  about  it. 
Some  few,  I  have  heard,  think  I  may  have  forgotten — that  is  impossible, 
but  it  is  the  worst  I  have  heard  from  any  Senator— but  a  very  large  ma- 
jority have  expressed  to  me,  personally,  their  unabated  confidence.  I 
have  an  invitation  to  a  public  dinner  at  Philadelphia  from  leading  men.1 
But  is  it  not  better  for  me  to  go  home  first,  where  I  expect  to  live  and 
die,  and  from  whence  I  have  had  a  hundred  welcome  and  cordial  letters 
the  past  month  ?  Telegraph  me  if  you  think  so." 

The  House  of  Representatives  adopted  the  following 
resolution  : 

"  That  the  testimony  taken  by  the  committee  of  this  House,  of  which 
Mr.  Poland  is  chairman,  be  referred  to  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary, 
with  instructions  to  inquire  whether  anything  in  such  testimony  warrants 
articles  of  impeachment  of  any  officer  of  the  United  States  not  a  member 
of  this  House,  or  makes  it  proper  that  further  investigation  should  be 
ordered  in  his  case." 

1.  Mr.  W.  J.  P.  White,  President  of  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  conveyed  this  invita- 
tion in  the  following  letter  : 

"Notwithstanding  the  assaults  of  your  enemies  and  the  misrepresentations  of  the 
envious,  thousands  of  men  and  women  in  this  city  desire  to  manifest  their  continued 
confidence  in  your  patriotism,  honor,  and  veracity ;  and  I  am  requested  to  inquire  of 
you  whether  your  arrangements  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress  will  permit  you  to 
accept  of  a  public  or,  private  dinner  in  this  city,  the  day  to  suit  your  convenience.  We 
should  prefer  to  have  ladies  participate,  and  the  dinner  to  be  under  proper  restrictions. 
Please  favor  us  with  an  early  reply." 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  417 

The  Judiciary  Committee  reported,  February  27th,  that 
the  power  of  impeachment  was  remedial  and  preventive 
only  ;  that  so  far  as  receiving  and  holding  an  interest  in 
the  Credit  Mobilier  was  concerned,  there  was  nothing  in 
the  testimony  submitted  which  would  warrant  the  impeach- 
ment of  the  Vice-President.  To  him  this  was  an  additional 
misfortune,  for  in  the  trial  of  an  impeachment  a  competent 
tribunal  would  have  passed  judgment  on  the  testimony 
against  him.  He  asked  an  investigation  by  the  Senate, 
but  this  was  impossible,  for  he  was  not  a  Senator.  If  the 
Poland  Committee  could  have  summed  up  his  case,  and 
rendered  a  verdict  against  him,  as  they  did  against  Gar- 
field,  it  might  have  raised  a  presumption  in  his  favor.  But 
the  Poland  Committee  confined  its  findings  to  the  cases  of 
members  of  the  House,  and  so  the  whole  matter,  so  far  as 
he  was  concerned,  was  left  at  loose  ends. 

Noon  of  the  4th  of  March  having  arrived,  the  Senate 
unanimously  adopted  a  resolution  of  thanks  "  to  the  Hon. 
Schuyler  Colfax,  for  the  able,  dignified,  and  impartial 
manner  in  which  he  has  discharged  the  laborious  duties  of 
the  Chair  during  the  term  in  which  he  has  presided  over 
the  deliberations  of  the  Senate."  The  Vice-President 
said  : 

"  Senators,  the  time  fixed  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Forty-second 
Congress  has  arrived  ;  and  with  a  few  parting  words  I  shall  resign  the 
gavel  to  the  honored  son  of  Massachusetts,  who  has  been  chosen  by  the 
people  as  my  successor. 

"  Administrations  terminate  and  Congresses  expire  as  the  years  pass 
by,  but  the  nation  lives  and  grows  and  prospers,  to  be  served  in  the 
future  by  those  equally  faithful  to  its  interests  and  equally  proud  of  its 
growing  influence  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  To  be  called  by  the 
Representatives  of  the  people,  and  afterward  by  the  people  themselves, 
to  the  responsible  duty  of  presiding  successively  over  the  two  Houses  of 
Congress  for  the^  past  ten  years,  from  the  era  of  war  through  the  era  of 
reconstruction  to  the  era  of  peace,  more  than  fills  the  measure  of  an 
honorable  ambition. 

"  Looking  back  over  these  ten  exciting  years,  I  can  claim  not  only 
that  I  have  committed  no  act  which  has  proven  the  confidence  misplaced 
that  called  me  to  this  position,  but  also  that  I  have  striven  in  its  official 
duties  to  administer  the  parliamentary  law  with  the  same  impartiality 
with  which  the  upright  judge  upon  the  bench  decides  questions  of  life  and 


41 8  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

liberty.  To  faithfully  protect  the  rights  of  the  minority,  as  well  as  to 
uphold  the  rights  of  the  majority  in  the  advancement  of  the  public  busi- 
ness ;  to  remain  calm  and  unmoved  amid  the  excitements  of  debate  ;  to 
temper  and  restrain  asperities,  and  to  guard  against  personal  antago- 
nisms ;  to  perform  acceptably,  in  a  word,  the  complex  and  often  perplex- 
ing duties  of  the  Chair  without  partisan  bias,  has  been  my  constant  en- 
deavor. It  is  gratifying,  therefore,  that  of  the  many  hundreds  of  de- 
cisions made  by  me,  often  on  the  instant,  none  has  been  reversed  and 
scarcely  any  seriously  questioned. 

"  How  much  I  owe  to  the  uniform  kindness  and  support  of  the  mem- 
bers over  whom  I  have  presided  is  difficult  to  express  in  words.  It  has 
been  bounded  by  no  party  lines  and  controlled  by  no  political  affilia- 
tions ;  and  I  rejoice  that  I  have  been  able  to  attest  my  appreciation  of 
this  support.  While  zealously  defending  principles  before  the  people, 
this  defence  has  never  been  coupled  with  personal  assault  on  any  of  the 
eminent  public  men  with  whom  I  have  differed.  No  aspersions  on  their 
character  have  dishonored  my  tongue  ;  no  epithets  or  invective  have 
fallen  from  my  lips. 

"  But  the  clock  admonishes  me  that  the  Forty-second  Congress  has 
already  passed  into  history  ;  and  wishing  you,  Senators,  useful  lives  for 
your  country  and  happy  lives  for  yourselves,  thanking  you  for  the 
resolution  spread  on  your  journal,  and  invoking  the  favor  of  Him  who 
holds  the  destinies  of  nations  and  of  men  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand,  I 
am  ready  to  administer  the  oath  of  office  to  the  Vice-President-elect, 
whom  I  now  introduce  to  you." 

The  Washington  correspondent  of  the  Utica  (N.  Y.) 
Herald  wrote  : 

"  There  was  a  world  of  pathos  in  Colfax's  brief  farewell.  It  was  in 
the  manner  of  his  speaking  that  he  filled  the  soul  of  every  listener  with 
infinite  sympathy.  The  voice  and  manner  of  Mr.  Colfax  were  an  uncon- 
scious appeal  to  his  hearers  for  a  kindly  judgment  on  the  long  public  life 
to  which  he  was  adding  the  last  finishing  touches.  But  the  words  were 
the  reverse  :  a  challenge,  meant  for  the  world,  an  invitation  to  scrutinize 
his  whole  record,  and  with  just  enough  tint  of  bitterness  about  them  to 
indicate  that  he  believed  himself  to  have  been  most  foully  misjudged  in 
these  last  days." 

Mrs.  Mary  Clemmer  Ames,  Washington  correspondent 
of  the  New  York  Independent,  wrote  : 

"  He  is  the  very  Schuyler  Colfax  that  he  was  when  his  name  gave 
such  magnetism  to  the  ticket  of  1868.  The  Vice-Presidency  was  the 
flood-tide  of  his  favor.  The  popular  Representative,  the  lionized  Speaker, 
once  ensconced  in  a  place  without  patronage,  irrevocably  possessed  by  a 
wife,  secure  in  his  own  castle,  suddenly  ceased  to  be  in  the  public  thought 


FORTY-SECOND   CONGRESS.  419 

the  happy,  hail-fellow-well-met,  the  feted,  followed,  lauded  lion  of  the 
hour.  In  that  hour  of  supreme  success,  did  he  forget  his  fellows,  the 
men  and  women  who  had  pushed  his  triumphal  car  with  steadfast,  un- 
tiring, unselfish  hands  to  its  final  goal  ?  I  know  not.  I  only  know  that 
of  the  sin  of  ingratitude  he  is  loudly  accused,  and  remains  to-day  unfor- 
given.  My  own  belief  is  that  what  seemed  ingratitude  to  many  was  the 
result  of  new  conditions,  and  not  of  deliberate  will.  No  less,  from  that 
hour  he  has  been  pursued  and  punished  by  the  press. 

"  We  hear  so  much  about  the  power  of  the  press  !  Well,  it  is  a  fiend- 
ish power  so  far  as  it  represents  personal  enmity  and  private  spite.  It  is 
terrible  to  contemplate  that  a  man's  character  may  be  filched  away  from 
him  in  type,  because  Jackanapes,  who  penned  it,  is  enraged  that  he  was 
not  invited  to  his  victim's  house  to  dinner.  He  missed  the  dinner,  but 
not  the  revenge  ;  not  he  !  Honest  Job  and  Jemima  read  the  paragraph 
in  their  isolated  home.  They  ponder  over  it  in  sorrow.  Their  news- 
paper says  it.  Meanwhile  Jackanapes  crows  to  his  cronies  in  '  News- 
paper Row  : '  '  He  didn't  invite  me  to  dinner  ;  but  I  can  write  him  down. 
We'll  bring  the  gentleman  to  his  level.  He'll  feel  the  power  of  the  press 
to  his  sorrow.' 

' '  Yes,  he  felt  it  at  the  Philadelphia  Convention.  The  newspaper  men 
and  his  own  sad  lack  of  reticence  made  Schuyler  Colfax's  renomination 
impossible.  But  it  should  have  been  a  malicious  crime,  one  of  which 
he  is  by  nature  incapable,  to  call  out  all  the  personal  animosity  exhibited 
there.  '  After  his  election  to  the  Vice-Presidency  he  would  not  look  at  a 
newspaper  man.'  This  is  the  standing  and  supreme  accusation  hurled 
against  Schuyler  Colfax  for  four  years.  It  has  deepened  the  color  and 
pungency  of  every  other.  The  root  which  nourishes  to  such  malignant 
life  the  -worst  suspicions  of  to-day  is  personal  animosity. ' ' 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CREDIT  MOBILIER   (CONTINUED). 

1873- 

RETURN  TO  SOUTH  BEND.  —  GREAT  OVATION.  —  "  AFFECTIONATELY 
YOURS,  U.  S.  GRANT."— VERDICT  OF  THE  LEADING  DEMOCRATIC  JOUR- 
NAL OF  THE  WEST. — LETTERS  RECEIVED. — MUSTER  OF  HIS  MOTLEY 
ASSAILANTS. — His  DEFENCES  THROWN  DOWN  BY  HIS  SOUTH  BEND 
SPEECH  OF  1872. — BUT  WITHOUT  INTENT. — His  EXPLANATION. — 
GUILTY  OF  ALL,  OR  INNOCENT  OF  ALL. — SENSITIVENESS  TO  A  STAIN 
ON  HIS  HONOR. — His  STRUGGLE  THAT  OF  A  HERO. — LETTER  TO  HIS 
WIFE  AND  SON,  CARRIED  NINE  YEARS. — REWARD  FOR  TWENTY  YEARS 
GIVEN  TO  THE  SERVICE  OF  HIS  COUNTRY. — PRESS  COMMENTS. 

THE  ex-Vice-President  returned  home  by  way  of  Chi- 
cago. The  following  account  of  his  reception  is  taken 
from  the  South  Bend  Tribune  Extra  of  March  nth,  1873  : 

"  Except  for  a  raw  west  wind,  which  at  times  blew  almost  a  hurricane, 
the  weather  on  Saturday  last  was  all  that  could  have  been  wished  for  the 
Colfax  reception.  The  sun  came  up  brightly  in  a  clear  sky,  and  threw 
its  genial  rays  upon  scores  of  flags  and  banners  floating  from  buildings 
throughout  the  city  ;  upon  roads  lined  with  teams  ;  upon  streets  filled 
with  people  from  the  farm,  workshop,  and  office,  who  began  to  gather  at 
an  early  hour  to  join  in  the  great  ovation  to  our  distinguished  fellow- 
citizen.  About  eleven  o'clock  crowds  of  people  began  to  move  toward 
the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  depot  ;  and  before  noon  the  pas- 
senger-house, the  walks  around  it,  and  the  yard  space  far  out  toward  the 
streets  was  one  solid  mass  of  humanity,  while  South  Street  for  a  long 
distance  either  way  was  completely  jammed  with  vehicles.  Not  even  in 
the  early  days  of  the  Rebellion,  when  companies  and  regiments  embarked 
here  for  Southern  battle-fields,  had  such  crowds  been  seen.  Yet  for  all  the 
vast  throng  at  the  depot,  the  streets  down  in  the  city  were  more  crowded 
than  they  usually  are  at  any  political  rally  ;  and  in  the  Court  House 
Square,  where,  on  account  of  the  high  wind,  it  was  determined  to  have  the 
reception  speeches,  in  the  shelter  of  the  Court  House  walls,  there  was 
gathered  an  assemblage  that  would  have  gladdened  the  heart  of  any  polit- 
ical orator.  Never  before  have  we  witnessed  such  an  outpouring  of  the 


CREDIT   MOBILIER.  421 

people,  and  all  without  regard  to  party  ties  or  affiliations,  anxious  to  do 
homage  to  the  man  whom  they  so  dearly  loved  and  admired,  and  who  had 
been  so  foully  wronged." 

After  describing  the  informal  but  hearty  demonstration 
of  welcome  by  the  people  of  La  Porte,  where  he  was  also 
met  by  the  Mayor  and  many  prominent  citizens  of  South 
Bend,  the  Tribune  continues  : 

"  At  precisely  ten  minutes  past  noon  the  train  bearing  Mr.  Colfax 
steamed  into  the  city  and  halted  in  front  of  the  passenger-house.  So 
packed  was  the  crowd,  and  so  eager  were  they  to  get  a  glimpse  of  Mr. 
Colfax,  that  it  was  impossible  for  any  one  to  effect  a  landing  from  the 
cars.  A  way  was  finally  broken  through  the  crowd  down  to  the  carriages, 
which  he  at  last  reached,  after  passing  a  long  gauntlet  of  hand-shaking. 
The  vehicles  were  formed  in  procession  by  the  Marshal,  Leighton  Pine, 
who,  with  the  assistant  marshals,  occupied  the  first  carriage.  Next  fol- 
lowed the  band  wagon,  with  the  South  Bend  Cornet  Band  in  full  uni- 
form ;  then  came  a  barouche,  drawn  by  four  white  horses,  wearing  plumes, 
in  which  was  seated  Mr.  Colfax,  Mayor  Miller,  ex-Mayor  Humphreys, 
and  W.  H.  Beach.  Following  it  was  a  long  line  of  carriages  and  vehicles 
of  all  kinds.  The  procession  moved  out  South  Street  to  Main,  and 
directly  down  Main  to  the  Court  House.  The  streets  on  either  side  were 
closely  lined  with  people  ;  flags  and  handkerchiefs  waved  from  the  resi- 
dences along  the  route  ;  the  band  discoursed  its  most  stirring  music  ;  the 
bells  of  the  city  rang  out  joyfully  from  Court  House,  churches,  engine- 
houses,  and  factories  ;  the  steam-whistles  of  the  workshops  shrieked  mer- 
rily ;  and  cheers  for  Colfax,  and  shouts  of  '  We'll  stick  to  Schuyler,'  rent 
the  air  as  the  vast  procession  and  the  crowd  that  surged  after  it  drew  up 
at  the  Court  House  Square." 

After  much  delay,  on  account  of  the  crowd  and  another 
long  gauntlet  of  hand-shaking,  Mr.  Colfax,  accompanied 
by  the  Mayor,  Dr.  Humphreys,  and  Hon.  Tom  Under- 
wood, of  Lafayette,  at  last  reached  the  platform  on  the 
Court  House  steps.  Three  rousing  cheers  were  given  for 
Mr.  Colfax,  and  Mayor  Miller  addressed  him  as  follows  : 

"  MR.  COLFAX  :  On  behalf  of  your  townsmen  and  friends,  it  is  my  pleas- 
ant duty  to  speak  the  words  that  but  faintly  express  your  welcome  home. 
The  city,  county,  and  district,  of  which  from  childhood  you  have  been  a 
resident  ;  the  constituency  you  have  so  long  and  worthily  represented  ; 
and  the  friends  who,  from  youth  to  manhood,  have  looked  with  pride 
upon  your  success  in  life,  all  bid  you  welcome,  and  bid  me  to  express  to 
you  their  continued  confidence  and  undiminished  regard.  You  are  no 
stranger  here.  The  citizens  who  first  saw  and  appreciated  the  struggles, 
perseverance,  and  honorable  ambition  of  your  early  life  ;  who  have  had  a 


422  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

long  association  with  you  as  a  neighbor  and  a  fellow-citizen  ;  who  have 
with  jealous  pride  seen  and  felt  the  results  of  your  constant  efforts  on  the 
si  le  of  the  principles  of  justice  and  of  right,  as  their  immediate  Represen- 
tative, conceive  themselves  best  qualified  to  give  the  estimate  of  your  char- 
acter, and  render  a  just  verdict  on  your  conduct.  That  verdict  has  been 
by  them  freely,  promptly,  and  justly  given.  Neither  the  insinuations  of 
insidious  foes  nor  the  charges  of  open  enemies  can  change  it  ;  nor  can 
calumny  or  detraction  rob  you  of  the  well-deserved  esteem  of  your 
friends  and  neighbors.  That  confidence  in  your  integrity,  ever  felt  by 
them,  and  now,  by  [reason  of]  a  consistent,  blameless,  and  serene  private 
and  public  life,  cannot  be  destroyed  by  the  machinations  and  artifices  of 
scheming  hucksters  to  impair  or  impede  your  course  of  usefulness  to  your 
country,  and  your  future  advancement  to  the  highest  honors  by  the  Re- 
public to  its  worthiest  citizens.  We  shall  ever,  as  heretofore,  whether  as 
a  public  Representative,  a  private  citizen,  or  the  future  recipient  of  still 
higher  honors,  gladly  welcome  your  return  to  us,  keeping  unimpaired 
our  full  trust  in  your  character  for  truth,  integrity,  and  patriotism, 
which  has  been  so  well  merited,  and  retaining  that  affection  for  your  per- 
son and  character  that  has  led,  and  will  ever  lead  us,  to  proudly  call  you 
our  own  Schuyler." 

Three  more  cheers  were  given  for  Mr.  Colfax  as  he  rose 
to  reply,  and  when  the  enthusiasm  subsided,  he  said  : 

"  MR.  MAYOR,  NEIGHBORS,  AND  FRIENDS  :  My  heart  would  be  cold 
and  callous  indeed  if  it  did  not  throb  more  quickly  and  happily  at  such 
a  welcome  home  as  this  one  with  which  I  am  honored,  and  the  gratitude 
for  which  it  would  take  a  lifetime  to  exhibit.  Here  you  have  known 
me  from  childhood.  My  goings  out  and  comings  in  have  been  before 
your  eyes.  My  character  has  been  formed  among  you,  and  you  know 
whether  for  a  paltry  sum  of  money  I  could  be  induced  to  shipwreck  it. 
When  you  come  hither,  therefore,  by  the  thousands,  spontaneously,  and, 
as  I  am  glad  to  be  told  and  know,  not  my  political  friends  alone,  but 
prominent  and  life-long  political  opponents,  to  honor  me  with  unmis- 
takable manifestations  of  your  unabated  confidence  and  affectionate 
regard,  I  feel  it  due  to  you,  as  well  as  myself,  to  expose  the  utter 
injustice  of  the  cruel  charges  on  which  I  have  been  arraigned  during  the 
past  winter. 

"  If  I  had  been  a  confessed  and  wicked  criminal  I  could  not  have 
been  pursued  with  more  malignity  by  a  portion  of  the  American  press 
and  their  Washington  correspondents.  Day  after  day,  every  possible  cir- 
cumstance has  been  exaggerated  and  telegraphed  as  absolute  proof  of 
guilt.  Day  after  day,  it  has  been  demanded  that  I  should  explain  this,  or 
that,  or  the  other  point  ;  and,  when  explained,  the  same  malicious  enemies 
have  tortured  and  perverted  and  misrepresented  the  explanation  ;  de- 
termined that  the  reputation  of  the  man  they  hated  should  be  destroyed  if 
possible  ;  and  as  day  by  day  they  poisoned  the  public  mind,  they  rejoiced 


CREDIT   MOBILIER.  423 

with  shouts  of  exultation  at  having  effected,  as  they  hoped,  their  work  of 
ruin.  The  frank  exposure  of  all  my  financial  affairs  did  no  good.  The 
disclosure  of  the  sacred  confidences  of  the  dead  only  gave  them  fresh  op- 
portunities for  cavil  and  falsification.  The  testimony  of  my  stepfather 
and  sister,  unimpeachable  as  you  here  know  them  to  be,  was  denounced 
as  unworthy  of  belief.  These  enemies  were  determined  on  having  their 
victim  ;  but,  conscious  of  my  entire  innocence  of  this  cruel  and  wicked 
charge,  and  confident  that  He  who  knoweth  all  things  will  in  His  own 
good  time  make  that  innocence  manifest  to  all,  I  have  stood  unmoved 
amid  this  tempest-storm  of  vilification  and  injustice,  willing  to  bide  my 
time  for  the  complete  vindication  I  know  is  certain  to  come. 

"  Let  me  read  from  the  Chicago  Inter-Ocean  of  September  26th,  1872, 
an  extract  from  the  speech  I  delivered  here  the  previous  day.  It  was  made, 
you  will  remember,  in  reply  to  the  charge  that  I  was  one  of  the  '  twelve 
apostles  who  sold  out  to  the  Credit  Mobilier,  at  twenty  thousand  dollars 
apiece  ;  '  who  had  been  bribed  by  gifts  of  stock  on  which  enormous  div- 
idends had  been  paid,  and  for  which  certain  legislation  had  been  enacted  : 

"  '  Never  having  in  my  life  a  dollar  of  stock  that  I  did  not  pay  for,  I 
claim  the  right  to  purchase  stock  in  the  Credit  Mobilier,  or  Credit  Immo- 
bilier,  if  there  is  one  ;  nor  do  I  know  of  any  law  prohibiting  it.  Do  I 
need  to  add  that  neither  Oakes  Ames  nor  any  other  person  ever  gave  or 
offered  to  give  me  one  share,  or  twenty  shares,  or  two  hundred  shares 
in  the  Credit  Mobilier  or  any  other  railroad  stock  ;  and  that,  unfortu- 
nately, I  have  never  seen  or  received  the  value  of  a  farthing  out  of  the  two 
hundred  and  seventy  per  cent  dividends  or  the  eight  hundred  per  cent 
dividends,  in  cash,  stock,  or  bonds,  you  have  read  about  the  past  month  ; 
nor  one  hundred  per  cent,  nor  the  tenth  of  one  per  cent.  I  have  said 
that  if  twenty  shares  could  be  purchased  at  par,  without  buying  in  to  a 
prospective  lawsuit,  it  would  be  a  good  investment,  if  as  valuable  a  stock 
as  represented.  But  never  having  been  plaintiff  or  defendant  in  a  court 
of  justice,  I  want  no  stock  at  any  price  with  a  lawsuit  on  top  of  it.' 

"  Although  I  thus  publicly  claimed  the  right  to  purchase  this  very 
stock,  and  avowed  frankly  my  willingness  to  buy,  own,  and  hold  twenty 
shares  of  it,  if  I  could  do  it  without  buying  into  a  lawsuit,  and  thus  ac- 
cepted all  the  odium  that  could  attach  to  purchasing  it,  as  I  then  under- 
stood it,  I  have  been  charged  with  prevarication,  because  I  did  not  go  on 
and  state  that  I  had  withdrawn  years  before  from  an  incomplete  contract 
to  buy  twenty  shares,  losing  what  I  had  paid  on  account.  If  I  had  sup- 
posed that  a  denial  or  explanation  of  an  entirely  different  charge  than 
that  I  was  answering  would  be  required  of  me,  I  should  certainly  have 
made  it,  as  it  would  have  strengthened,  instead  of  weakening,  what  I  was 
stating  ;  but  that  I  could  not  foresee.  An  eminent  divine  once  said, 
rather  irreverently  :  '  If  man's  foresight  were  only  as  good  as  his  hind- 
sight, he  would  be  but  a  little  lower  than  the  angels  ;  '  and  my  policy  in 
speaking  has  always  been  to  discuss  and  explain  pending  issues,  and  not 
to  discuss  or  explain  those  that  were  not  pending. 


424  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

"  But  let  us  test  this  by  an  illustration,  a  method  which  often  brings 
out  a  disputed  point  more  vividly  than  argument.  Suppose  any  one  of  you 
had  been  charged  with  having  been  given-shares  in  a  woollen  factory  ;  that 
from  these  shares  you  had  received  enormous  dividends  ;  and  that  as  a 
payment  for  these  gifts  and  dividends  you  had  aided  corruptly  in  carrying 
through  legislation  in  regard  to  the  duties  on  wool  ;  would  you  not  regard 
it  as  a  sufficient  answer  to  such  charges  to  tell  the  public  that  you  had 
been  all  your  life  publicly  advocating  the  scale  of  duties  alleged  to  have 
been  carried  by  corruption  ?  That,  besides  this,  their  enactment  had  been 
years  before  these  alleged  gifts  ;  that  you  had  never  owned  any  stock  in 
woollen  factories,  or  in  anything  else  that  you  had  not  paid  for  ;  that  your 
shares  had  never  been  given  you,  and  that  you  had  never  received  any 
such  dividends  ?  Now,  if  you  had  voluntarily  withdrawn,  as  1  had,  at  a 
pecuniary  loss,  over  four  years  before,  from  an  agreement  to  buy  such 
stock  in  a  woollen  factory,  you  would  regard  what  I  have  supposed  as  a 
sufficient  refutation  of  a  charge,  that  you  had  been  bribed  by  gifts  of  stock 
and  enormous  dividends.  But  if  you  had  added  to  this  the  frank  state- 
ment that  you  had  said  you  would  be  willing  to  buy  this  very  factory 
stock  at  par,  and  to  hold  it,  if  it  would  not  involve  you  in  litigation,  would 
you  not  think  that  your  answer  was  full  and  thorough  on  every  practical 
point  that  the  wanton  calumny  required  you  to  state  ?  No  one  could 
have  been  misled  by  my  speech,  on  the  vital  point,  that  though  no  such 
stock  was  ever  given  to  me,  I  publicly  avowed  my  willingness  to  bear  all 
the  reproach  that  could  attach  to  an  investment  of  my  money  at  par,  as 
I  then  understood  it." 

The  ex-Vice-President  cited  leading  opposition  papers 
in  proof  that  he  was  thoroughly  understood  at  the  time, 
and  then  went  over  the  investigation  in  detail,  so  far  as 
it  concerned  himself.  The  speech  was  universally  pub- 
lished by  the  press.  He  ended  as  follows  : 

"  Here  I  must  close.  From  first  to  last  I  have  stated  all  the  leading 
practical  points  in  this  transaction  in  identical  and  unchanged  language, 
and  I  am  not  responsible  for  the  malicious  perversions  and  twistings  of 
these  statements  with  which  the  newspapers  have  been  filled.  In  the 
confidence  of  the  family  circle,  before  you  here  in  a  public  speech,  and  in 
the  committee-room  at  Washington  I  have  stated  what  is  the  fact— that 
I  never  received  a  dollar  of  dividends  on  the  Credit  Mobilier  or  the  Union 
Pacific  Railway  from  Mr.  Ames  or  any  one  else — on  all  occasions.  I 
have  stated  that  while  I  would  be  willing  to  buy  it  at  par  and  to  hold  it, 
as  I  understood  it  in  1868,  no  prospect  of  liberal  dividends  could  induce 
me  to  buy  into  a  lawsuit.  For  over  four  years,  by  Mr.  Ames's  own  tes- 
timony, although  we  have  both  been  at  the  Capitol,  there  has  not  been  a 
word  exchanged  between  us  as  to  dividends  on  this  stock.  Could  there 
be  stronger  confirmation  of  its  abandonment  ? 


CREDIT   MOBILIER.  425 

"  I  stand  before  you  conscious  of  no  wrong-doing  in  this  matter  in 
thought,  word,  or  deed.  As  it  was  represented  to  me  by  Mr.  Ames,  I 
agreed  to  buy  twenty  shares  ;  afterward,  and  within  a  few  months,  on  my 
own  convictions,  I  abandoned  it,  preferring  to  lose  what  I  had  paid  than 
to  hold  it.  Mind  and  heart  and  conscience  all  acquit  me  of  the  unjust 
imputations  to  which  I  have  been  subjected.  My  record  has  never  been 
stained  with  dishonor  or  falsification  ;  and  this  extraordinary  manifesta- 
tion of  unshaken  confidence  and  unchangeable  regard  by  old  friends  who 
have  known  me  from  boyhood  answers  a  thousand  malicious  attacks,  and 
thrills  my  heart  with  a  gratitude  I  cannot  express  in  words. 

"  I  come  back  now  to  live  and  die  in  this  town  of  South  Bend,  that  I 
love  so  well  ;  for  no  temptations  of  large  salaries  or  widespread  spheres 
of  usefulness  have  induced  me,  in  the  few  months  last  past,  to  accept  even 
enormous  salaries,  and  turn  my  back  upon  the  people  who  have  loved 
me  so  long  and  so  well,  and  whose  tears  I  know  will  be  dropped  upon  my 
coffin  when  I  am  buried  in  the  City  of  the  Dead  on  yonder  hill.  I  come 
back  to  you  to  be  welcomed  with  open  hearts  and  willing  hands,  testifying, 
as  to-day,  your  confidence  in  and  your  regard  for  me.  In  the  sphere 
of  private  life — moving  in  and  out  in  the  peaceful  circle  of  your  house- 
holds ;  day  by  day,  week  by  week,  month  by  month,  year  by  year,  if  God 
spares  my  life  ;  as  I  sit  around  your  family  tables  ;  as  I  visit  back  and 
forth,  and  meet  you  in  the  marts  of  business  and  trade  ;  here,  in  this 
Court  House  Square,  in  the  various  public  meetings  we  may  have— never, 
while  this  heart  continues  to  beat,  never  shall  I  forget  the  warm,  the  gen- 
erous, and  enthusiastic  manner  in  which  you  have  given  me  this  welcome 
home  to-day.  God  bless  you  all !" 

A  burst  of  cheers  followed  the  close  of  this  address. 
When  it  subsided,  Dr.  Humphreys  presented  the  ex-Vice- 
President  a  memorial,  to  which  was  appended  the  signa- 
tures of  fifteen  hundred  of  the  citizens  of  St.  Joseph 
County,  to  wit  : 

"  HON.  SCHUYLER  COLFAX  :  We,  the  undersigned,  desire,  on  your  re- 
tirement from  the  incumbency  of  the  second  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  to  express  to  you  the  gratification  and  honest 
pride  we  have  felt  in  the  purity  of  personal  character  you  have  always 
maintained  and  the  honorable  success  with  which  you  have  invariably 
administered  all  the  trusts  committed  to  your  care  during  the  many  years 
you  have  passed  in  public  life  ;  and  having  as  dwellers  in  the  home  of 
your  youth  and  mature  years  studied  your  character  and  life  thoroughly, 
we,  without  regard  to  our  political  views,  wish  especially  at  this  time  to 
place  on  permanent  record  an  expression  of  our  hearty  sympathy  with 
you  in  the  terrible  ordeal  to  which  malice,  misrepresentation,  and  falsifi- 
cation have  so  unjustly  subjected  you,  and  of  our  unabated  and  complete 


426  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

confidence  in   the  honesty,  truthfulness,  and  purity  of  your  personal, 
official,  and  business  life  and  character." 

After  the  recipient  of  this  testimonial  had  made  his 
acknowledgments,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted  : 

"  That  in  welcoming  Schuyler  Colfax  home  to-day,  after  his  twenty 
years  of  arduous  public  service,  in  which  he  has  been  excelled  by  none  as 
a  model  statesman— temperate,  judicious,  and  faithful  to  principle— we 
do  so  with  undiminished  confidence  in  his  honor  and  integrity,  both  as  a 
public  man  and  a  private  citizen." 

At  the  close  of  the  meeting  the  procession  was  re- 
formed, and  the  ex-Vice-President  escorted  to  his  resi- 
dence, where  an  hour  was  spent  in  shaking  hands  with  the 
crowds  who  called  to  give  expression  to  their  pleasure  in 
meeting  again  their  old  friend  and  neighbor.  And  so 
ended  this  ovation.  With  the  report  of  the  ex-Vice-Presi- 
dent's  South  Bend  reception,  the  following  letter  was  pub- 
lished : 

"  EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  ) 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.f  March  4,  1873.  f 

"  MY  DEAR  MR.  COLFAX  :  Will  you  do  me  the  favor  and  come  over 
to  dine  at  four,  an  hour  near  at  hand  ?  We  will  have  no  company  except 
our  own  family  and  some  of  our  friends  who  came  on  to  the  inaugura- 
tion. The  dinner  is  early,  and  will  give  you  time  to  take  an  early  train 
for  Baltimore.  Allow  me  to  say  that  I  sympathize  with  you  in  the  recent 
Congressional  investigations  ;  that  I  have  watched  them  closely  ;  and 
that  I  am  as  satisfied  now  (as  I  have  ever  been)  of  your  integrity,  patriot- 
ism, and  freedom  from  the  charges  imputed,  as  if  I  knew  of  my  own 
knowledge  your  innocence.  Our  official  relations  have  been  so  pleasant, 
that  I  would  like  to  keep  up  the  personal  relations  engendered  through 
life. 

"  Affectionately  yours, 

"  U.  S.  GRANT." 

Also  the  following  double-leaded  editorial  paragraph 
from  the  Louisville  Courier- Journal,  the  leading  Democratic 
paper  in  the  West,  was  telegraphed  to  the  country  : 

"  We  have  taken  the  trouble  to  review,  carefully,  the  case  of  Mr.  Col- 
fax,  as  recorded  in  the  Congressional  investigation,  and  to  compare  it 
with  the  elaborate  defence  delivered  by  the  late  Vice-President  at  South 
Bend  last  Saturday.  The  result  of  our  researches  is  that  he  has  given  a 
successful  and  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  entire  matter.  It  will  re- 
quire a  closer  analysis  than  we  are  capable  of  making  to  alter  our  opinion 
that  in  this  business  Mr.  Colfax  has  been  very  much  abused  and  wronged  ; 


CREDIT   MOBILIER.  427 

and  we  are  the  readier  to  allow  this,  since  we  have  not  been  tempted, 
and  could  not  be  induced,  to  sacrifice  the  private  character  of  any  man  to 
a  partisan  interest  or  prejudice.  In  doing  what  we  believe  to  be  an  act 
of  personal  justice,  we  desire  to  be  full,  explicit,  and  ungrudging  ;  and 
therefore  we  shall  not  shadow  the  congratulations  which  we  have  to  offer 
a  conspicuous  adversary  by  any  of  those  minor  disparagements  that  might 
be  sanctioned  by  a  less  generous  criticism." 

Referring  to  this  "  act  of  personal  justice"  on  the  part 
of  the  Kentucky  paper,  the  Newark  (N.  J.)  Times  said  : 

"  There  is  much  of  the  dignity  and  manliness  of  true  journalism  in 
this  utterance,  and  it  will  be  the  final  verdict  with  all  except  mean  minds. 
There  is  another  vindication  in  the  dropping  of  the  name  of  Mr.  Colfax 
from  the  controversy  by  nearly  all  the  press  which  has  most  severely 
criticised  him.  There  is  consciousness  of  a  great  wrong  done  to  a  pure 
name  ;  a  reasonable  doubt  whether  so  good  a  name  could  have  been  sold 
at  a  price  so  cheap  as  stated  by  Oakes  Ames  in  the  *  S.  C.'  bargain  ;  and 
the  further  doubt  as  to  whether  the  interpretation  of  two  letters  in  a  check 
drawn  payable  to  bearer  constitutes  anything  which  a  reasonable  man 
would  call  evidence." 

Harper  s  Weekly  of  March  29th,  1873,  said  : 

"  The  reception  of   Mr.   Colfax  by  his  old  friends,   neighbors,   and 
political   supporters  shows  the   advantage  of   an  honorable   reputation. 
For  twenty  years  he  has  stood  before  his  countrymen  with  an  unblem-     , 
ished  fame  as  a  citizen,  a  politician,  a  parent,  relative,  and  friend.     His  "' 
regular  and  unspotted  life,  his  temperance  and  moderation,  his  freedom  ^£^., 
from  all  those  errors  which  so  often  taint  the  politician's  career,  his 
labors  in  the  cause  of  virtue  and  good  morals,  will  now  be  remembered  ^y* 
and  become  the  more  conspicuous  in  the  midst  of  the  abuse  of  the  envi- 
ous and  the  clamorous  virulence  of  the  corrupt.     Nothing,  indeed,  so  ex- 
cites the  envy   of  the  vicious  as  the  possession  of  an  unblemished  fame  ; 
and  the  rash  haste  with  which  several  of  the  opposition  journals  have'   •  !>/    */J,  |* 
ventured  to  impute  to  Mr.  Colfax  their  own  chief  failings  will  serve  only 
to  expose  them  more  plainly  to  the  people.     Falsehood,  avarice,  indiffer-  '•' 
ence  to  moral  laws,  Mr.  Colfax  has  never  exhibited.     His  whole  political 
course  has  been  marked  by  truthfulness  and  consistency,  by  singular 
moderation  in  his  conduct  toward  his  opponents,  by  a  firm  adherence  to  c  ^f  £/ 

republican  principles  ;    and   as  he  labored   for  the   preservation   of   his    „- 
country  in  those  sad  hours  when  they  who  now  assail  him  were  plotting1*^ 
its  destruction,  so  he  has  shared  in  all  the  triumphs  of  freedom,  and  has 
been  one  of  those  whom  his  countrymen  delighted  to  honor." 

After  summing  up  the  case,  as  left  by  the  investigation, 
and  declaring  '*  that  neither  affirmative  nor  negative  proof 
exists  against  Mr.  Colfax,"  Harper's  continues  : 


428  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

"  It  is  not  unreasonable,  therefore,  that  the  people  of  Indiana  should 
welcome  their  eminent  statesman  with  new  zeal  while  his  enemies  strive 
to  cover  his  fame  with  calumny  and  destroy  the  well-earned  reputation  of 
a  laborious  life.  Nothing  would  gratify  his  assailants  more  than  to  re- 
duce Mr.  Colfax  to  a  level  with  themselves.  Had  he  betrayed  the  prin- 
ciples of  freedom,  entered  into  treasonable  combinations,  striven  to  undo 
the  honorable  progress  of  the  past,  and  throw  the  nation  back  into  an- 
archy and  despair,  no  whisper  of  disapprobation  would  have  escaped  from 
the  men  who  now  assail  him  ;  he  might  have  been  their  favorite  leader. 
His  chief  crime  is  that  he  was  true  to  the  interests  of  freedom  in  the  re- 
cent campaign.  The  highest  proof  of  his  rectitude  and  honesty  for  pos- 
terity will  probably  be  the  characters  of  his  chief  assailants  ;  from  his  more 
honorable  opponents  he  is  receiving  a  thorough  vindication.  And  it  is 
certain  that  no  reputation  will  pass  to  future  years  more  spotless  or  envi- 
able than  that  of  Schuyler  CoJfax." 

A  large  book  might  be  filled  with  similar  press  com- 
ments, published  then  and  afterward,  which  Mr.  Coifax 
took  the  trouble  to  preserve  as  they  fell  in  his  way.  Out 
of  hundreds  of  friendly  letters  from  old  friends  and  from 
strangers  ;  from  women  ;  from  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives ;  from  national  and  State  officers  ;  from  judges,  law- 
yers, and  the  clergy  ;  from  editorial  writers  ;  from  bankers, 
railroad,  and  business  men — from  all  classes,  in  short,  a 
few  only  can  be  given,  to  wit  : 

From  the  Hon.  Samuel  F.  Miller,  Associate  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  : 

"  As  for  myself,  and  I  believe  I  speak  the  sentiment  of  all  your  true 
friends,  my  confidence  in  your  integrity,  your  honor,  and  veracity  is  un- 
impaired by  anything  that  has  occurred  in  the  remarkable  investigation  ; 
and  if  you  think  it  worth  having,  you  do  have  my  esteem  and  friendship 
fully  and  without  reserve." 

From  Senator  William  Windom,  of  Minnesota  : 

"  Will  you  do  me  the  favor  to  send  me  half  a  dozen  copies  of  the  Ex- 
tra containing  your  speech  at  South  Bend  ?  Your  vindication  is  conclu- 
sive, and  when  the  public  mind  becomes  sane,  it  will  be  generally  ac- 
cepted as  entirely  satisfactory.  I  hope  you  are  enjoying  the  quiet  of  your 
South  Bend  home.  God  bless  the  people  of  that  city  for  the  kind  and 
hearty  manner  in  which  they  received  you.  I  shall  always  love  them  for 
their  friendship  to  you.  Among  such  friends  as  those  you  can  afford  to  sit 
down  and  wait  patiently  until  the  storm  of  calumny  shall  pass  away.  It 
surely  will  pass  away,  and  in  the  calm  sunlight  of  the  coming  time  all 
honest  men  will  believe  you  to  be  what  I  know  you  are — honest  and  truth- 


CREDIT   MOBILIER.  429 

ful.  The  change  in  public  sentiment  has  already  begun.  A  just  God  will 
not  permit  you  to  go  down  to  posterity  under  such  a  fearful  load  of  cal- 
umny as  you  have  borne  for  the  last  few  months.  Courage,  my  dearest 
friend  !  Your  best  friends  have  never  wavered  in  their  confidence,  and 
others  will  soon  believe  as  they  do." 

From  Mr.  H.  E.  Sargent,  office  of  the  Michigan  Central 
Railroad  : 

"  As  one  among  the  multitude  of  your  friends  who  have  been  made 
familiar  by  the  press  with  the  unprecedented  persecution  to  which  you 
were  subjected  during  the  late  session  of  Congress,  I  desire  to  express  my 
sympathy  with  you  in  the  distress  it  must  have  caused  you,  and  my  entire 
faith  in  your  long-tried  integrity.  In  saying  this,  I  but  speak  the  senti- 
ments of  very  many  of  my  personal  friends  who  have  not  the  honor  of 
your  acquaintance." 

From  Governor  Samuel  H.  Elbert,  of  Colorado  : 

"  Permit  me  to  assure  you  that  I  have  not  been  indifferent,  either  in 
feeling  or  in  speech,  to  the  assaults  that  you  have  of  late  been  withstand- 
ing ;  and  I  take  great  pleasure  in  assuring  you  that  your  many  friends 
in  Colorado  have  not  abated  in  the  least  their  respect  and  esteem  for  one 
who  has  been  so  long  and  so  prominent  in  our  national  councils." 

From  the  Hon.  J.  S.  Golladay,  of  Kentucky  : 

"  I  do  most  honestly  and  sacredly  believe  every  statement  you  have 
made,  and  I  greatly  deprecate  and  condemn  the  mean  spirit  of  the  press 
and  people  who  circulate,  adopt,  and  believe  any  charges  whatever 
against  any  public  man,  which,  even  though  unsustained,  are  held  as 
'  confirmations  strong  as  Holy  Writ,'  against  the  record  of  a  life  of  pro- 
bity and  unsullied  honor.  Much  of  this  unfortunately  grows  out  of  politi- 
cal rivalry  and  hate,  though  very  much  more  grows  out  of  the  innate  con- 
sciousness of  their  own  corrupt  and  venal  hearts.  You  will  pardon  this 
humble  tribute  of  friendship  from  a  political  opponent,  who  was  very 
much  impressed  with  a  sense  of  gratitude  and  regard  by  your  invariable 
kindness  and  politeness  while  an  M.  C.  of  the  Fortieth  and  Forty  first 
Congresses.  The  statement  of  members  of  your  family,  personally  known 
to  me,  as  to  the  twelve  hundred  dollars,  is  conclusive  to  my  mind,  and 
seems  to  me  the  only  way  to  prove  a  negative.  I  deeply  sympathize  with 
you  in  your  trials,  which  I  know  must  be  terrible  to  any  sensitive  nature 
like  yours,  conscious  of  the  rectitude  of  his  life." 

From  the  Rev.  Dr.  T.  DeWitt  Talmage,  pastor  of 
Brooklyn  Tabernacle  : 

"  Nobody  believes  it.  A  group  of  political  loafers  cannot  destroy  a 
reputation  for  integrity  for  twenty  years  building.  But  you  are  no  better 


430  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

than  your  Master,  and  they  killed  Him,  showing  what  they  would  do  with 
God  if  they  could  get  at  Him.  May  the  Lord  keep  you  in  good  heart  and 
plenty  of  backbone  !  Take  this  little  political  preachment  from  one  who 
loves  you  very  much,  the  only  political  disappointment  of  my  life  being 
the  fact  that  you  were  not  renominated." 

From  Mr.  Benson  J.  Lossing,  the  historian  : 

"  I  have  watched  the  progress  of  the  matter  from  the  first  atrocious 
charges,  made  by  the  opposition  for  vile  electioneering  purposes,  to  the 
conclusion  of  the  investigation  ;  and  I  have  never,  for  one  moment, 
doubted  that  your  integrity,  honor,  and  transparent  truthfulness  would 
form  a  triumphant  defence  against  the  most  shameless  and  wicked  as- 
saults upon  the  hitherto  untarnished  character  of  a  public  officer  and  pri- 
vate citizen  to  be  found  in  history." 

From  Senator  Henry  B.  Anthony,  of  Rhode  Island  : 

"  I  called  at  your  lodgings  Tuesday,  after  the  adjournment,  and  they 
told  me  that  you  would  not  return.  I  went  back  to  the  Capitol,  but  you 
had  gone.  I  had  nothing  to  say  to  you  but  to  give  you  that  with  which 
you  are  already  loaded— my  best  wishes  for  your  health,  happiness,  and 
prosperity  ;  to  repeat  my  undoubting  confidence  in  your  full  integrity  ; 
my  sympathy  for  you  in  the  cruel  trials  you  have  experienced  ;  and  my 
faith  that  you  will  be  completely  vindicated  in  the  judgment  of  the 
American  people,  whom  you  have  so  long  and  so  faithfully  served,  and 
who  will  again  call  you  to  trusted  and  high  employment." 

From  ex-Lieutenant-Governor  Andrew  Shuman,  of  the 
Chicago  Evening  Journal : 

"  No  man  has  ever  been  the  object  of  a  more  cruel  persecution  or  of 
more  cowardly  and  brutal  injustice.  The  better  portion  of  the  people, 
those  who  love  justice  for  its  own  sake,  and  who  have  sense  enough  to 
discriminate  and  to  form  an  intelligent  opinion  of  their  own,  have  not 
one  whit  less  respect  for  or  confidence  in  you,  in  consequence  of  the 
Credit  Mobilier  assaults  on  your  fair  name,  than  they  had  before.  I  am 
in  a  position  to  judge,  and  you  may  rest  assured  that  in  this  which  I  say 
I  report  to  you  faithfully  the  feeling  of  the  only  class  of  people,  and  a  very 
large  class  it  is,  too,  whose  good  or  ill  opinion  is  worth  considering  at 
all,  the  people  of  reason  and  an  enlightened  conscience." 

From  the  Hon.  John  F.  Potter,  of  Wisconsin  : 

"  MY  DEAR  OLD  FRIEND  :  I  have  had  a  mind  to  write  you  a  word  for 
some  two  or  three  weeks  past,  just  to  say  to  you  that  there  is  not  one  of 
your  old  friends,  who  knows  you,  that  has  for  a  moment  distrusted  you, 
in  the  dust  and  smoke  of  investigation.  I  am  quite  sure  I  have  not,  and 
now,  since  your  very  satisfactory  explanation  of  your  private  money  ac- 


CREDIT   MOBILIER.  431 

counts,  I  don't  know  how  anybody  can,  excepting  always  political  ene- 
mies, who,  for  some  hidden  and  most  mysterious  reason,  are  ever  more 
bigoted,  more  unreasonable,  more  unfair,  unkind,  uncharitable,  and  in- 
human than  all  other  enemies  combined.  They  think  that  if  they  can 
pull  you  down  they  thereby  bring  with  you  all  their  opponents.  I  con- 
gratulate you  upon  your  near  retirement  from  a  stormy  public  life  to 
the  peace  and  quiet  which  God  gives  those  who  have  worked  for  Him." 

From  Mr.  Henry  Carey  Baird,  the  writer  on  Political 
Economy  : 

"  Without  the  pleasure  of  your  personal  acquaintance,  I  cannot  resist 
writing  to  you  to  express  my  intense  satisfaction — more,  my  joy — at  your 
vindication,  which  I  regard  as  complete.  You  have  been  on  my  mind 
and  in  my  thoughts  for  a  month  past,  but  I  never  lost  faith  in  you,  and  I 
told  every  one  you  would  come  out  unscathed,  as  you  will,  or,  as  I  think, 
have  already." 

From  the  Rev.  J.  Spencer  Kennard,  pastor  of  Pilgrim 
Baptist  Church,  New  York  City  : 

"  Though  personally  a  stranger  to  you,  I  am  prompted,  in  view  of  the 
reckless  judgments  pronounced  by  the  partisan  press,  to  express  to  you 
the  hearty  sympathy  and  unfaltering  confidence  which  is  felt  toward 
you,  not  only  by  myself,  but  by  a  large  majority  of  the  best  men  with 
whom  in  my  profession  I  am  brought  in  contact." 

From  Senator  John  Sherman,  of  Ohio  : 

"  I  have  read  with  great  interest  and  sincere  satisfaction  the  report 
of  your  reception  and  speech  at  home.  You  know  I  have  felt  all  winter 
that  gross  injustice  has  been  done  you,  in  the  eagerness  of  sensation  writ- 
ers to  exaggerate  every  imputation  against  a  public  man  ;  and  I  have  felt 
all  along  that  if  you  had  remained  perfectly  quiet,  answering  nothing  and 
explaining  nothing,  until  the  precise  accusation  was  made  against  you, 
and  then  have  met  it  with  the  open  frankness  of  your  recent  speech,  you 
would  have  been  saved  much  of  the  injustice  that  has  been  done  you. 
As  it  is,  I  believe  that  in  a  short  time  public  opinion  will  settle  down  to 
the  judgment  fairly  stated  by  the  Louisville  Courier- Journal,  and  that  you 
will  be  in  public  estimation  the  same  Schuyler  Colfax  who  for  eighteen 
years  won  and  wore  the  highest  honors  of  the  nation,  esteemed  and  re- 
spected for  personal  integrity  by  men  and  women  of  all  parties  and 
creeds.  After  travelling  a  boisterous  road  together,  we  have  both  reached 
that  period  of  life  when  the  coveted  honors  of  public  life  are  tinged  with 
ashes,  and  I  hope  we  have  also  gathered  the  wisdom  that  will  make  us 
indifferent  to  passing  criticisms." 

Many  things  combined  to  make  this  passage  in  his  life 
a  Via  Cruets  for  the  retiring  Vice-President.  The  most  in- 


434  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

ments  before  the  committee  to  his  disadvantage,  and  make 
them  the  basis  of  new  charges  of  moral  turpitude.  But 
for  this  unfortunate  personal  reference  in  his  South  Bend 
campaign  speech,  the  boundless  trust  of  the  people  in  him 
could  not  have  been  shaken,  even  for  a  moment ;  the  testi- 
mony and  the  "  memoranda"  of  Oakes  Ames  would  have 
weighed  naught  against  his  unsupported  word  ;  the  utmost 
efforts  of  his  detractors  to  injure  him  would  have  fallen  to 
the  ground  upon  which  they  grovelled  as  ineffectual  as 
arrows  shot  at  the  sun. 

In  view  of  its  consequences  to  him,  any  one  can  see  that 
his  reference  to  himself  in  his  South  Bend  speech  was  a 
mistake,  while  but  few  see  that  it  was  a  mistake  only  because 
what  he  said  on  that  occasion,  not  what  he  failed  to  say,  was  chal- 
lenged by  Oakes  Ames  before  the  Committee  of  Investigation. 
Obviously,  if  the  truth  of  what  he  actually  said  had  not 
been  questioned,  his  failure  to  say  everything  that  might 
have  been  said  would  never  have  been  criticised. 

But  such  as  it  was,  he  did  not  make  this  mistake  be- 
cause, as  Senator  Pratt  reports  the  people  as  saying,  "  he 
lacked  faith  in  the  people  to  readily  pardon  him."  He  was 
not  seeking  pardon  ;  he  was  not  even  under  conviction. 
He  referred  to  the  scandal,  as  he  said  in  the  speech  itself, 
"  not  to  put  myself  on  the  defensive — far  from  it — but  that 
we  may  see  out  of  what  worthless  stuff  campaign  charges 
are  manufactured."  To  his  friends  and  neighbors  of  South 
Bend  and  St.  Joseph  County,  on  his  return  home  in  March, 
1873,  he  said  : 

11  If  I  had  supposed  that  a  denial  or  explanation  of  an  entirely  differ- 
ent charge  than  that  which  I  was  answering  would  be  required  of  me,  I 
should  certainly  have  made  it,  as  it  would  have  strengthened  instead 
of  weakening  what  I  was  stating  ;  but  that  I  could  not  foresee.  An 
eminent  divine  once  said,  rather  irreverently  :  '  If  man's  foresight 
were  only  as  good  as  his  hind-sight,  he  would  be  but  little  lower  than  the 
angels  ; '  and  my  rule  in  speaking  has  always  been  to  discuss  and  explain 
pending  issues,  and  not  to  discuss  or  explain  those  that  were  not  pend- 
ing." 

He  wrote  to  General  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  of  New  York, 
April  22d,  1873  : 


CREDIT   MOBILIER.  435 

"  The  speech  I  made  here  last  September,  in  which  I  have  been  un- 
justly charged  with  prevarication,  was  not  made  for  my  own  vindication, 
for  I  was  not  a  candidate  ;  but  specially  to  answer  and  refute  and  anni- 
hilate the  charge  against  him  [Ames]  that  he  was  bribing  members  of 
Congress  in  1868,  or  needed  to  bribe  them.  I  send  you  a  copy  of  my 
speech  to  prove  this  to  you." 

In  a  letter  to  his  wife  and  son  on  this  subject,  which  he 
had  carried  with  him  nine  years,  and  which  only  reached 
them  with  the  news  of  his  death,  he  says  on  this  point  : 

"  When  in  1872  the  country  was  filled  with  the  charge  that  Ames  had 
bribed  a  number  of  Congressmen  by  giving  them  this  stock,  and  then 
paying  them  enormous  dividends  on  it,  for  which  legislation  was  enacted, 
I  was  urged  by  my  political  friends  to  explain  it  in  the  interest  of  the 
party,  as  I  was  so  familiar  with  the  Pacific  Railroad  legislation.  I  did 
so  in  a  speech  at  South  Bend  in  September,  1872,  in  which  I  showed 
that  the  legislation  charged  to  have  been  effected  by  bribery  had  been 
enacted  in  1864,  four  years  before  1868,  when  Ames  was  charged  with 
bribing  it  through  Congress  by  gifts  of  stock.  At  first  I  did  not  intend  to 
refer  to  myself  at  aft,  as  I  was  not  a  candidate,  and  had  never  had  any 
of  the  stock  or  any  of  its  dividends.  But,  out  of  abundant  caution,  I 
added,  as  I  proved  before  the  Congressional  Committee,  that  while  I  had 
never  had  any  of  the  stock  given  to  me,  nor  a  cent  of  its  dividends,  I 
would  certainly  have  been  willing  to  purchase  and  hold  it,  as  I  would  any 
other  stock,  if  I  so  chose,  and  if  I  did  not  thereby  bring  myself  into  a 
lawsuit,  which  was  the  exact  statement  of  the  facts  of  the  case." 

He  was  concerned  to  refute  the  current  calumnies 
against  his  party,  which  had  patriotically  given  the  Pacific 
Railroad  to  the  country.  But  keenly  sensitive  to  any  im- 
putation of  personl  wrong-doing,  it  was  natural  that,  in  the 
excitement  of  speaking,  he  should  be  led  to  deny,  on  his 
own  account,  "  the  allegation  of  the  Hon.  Oakes  Ames 
that  in  1868  he  [Ames]  bribed  one  member  of  Congress 
from  Indiana,  and  that  member  was  Schuyler  Colfax."  * 
True,  there  was  no  need  of  it  ;  the  brutal  charge  was  be- 
neath contempt ;  but  his  sensitiveness  respecting  his  good 
name  was  a  matter  of  temperament  against  which  he  was 
powerless  to  contend.  Under  the  circumstances,  being 
what  he  was,  it  was  inevitable  that  he  would  be  carried 
into  a  personal  reference,  without  previous  intention.  But 
the  personal  reference  was  not  the  burden,  it  was  only  an 

1.  The  New  York  Sun  of  September  28th,  1872. 


432  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

offensive  man  of  his  eminence  ever  in  American  politics,  he 
was  in  this  strait  treated  the  most  shabbily.  His  pure  private 
life  and  his  unsullied  public  record  were  ignored  ;  his  guilt 
was  assumed,  and  he  was  required  to  prove  his  innocence, 
although  it  involved  his  proving  a  negative.  Old  friends, 
now  estranged,  as  well  as  political  opponents  and  personal 
enemies,  in  control  of  great  journals,  denounced  him  in 
concert  for  practices  of  which  many  of  them  personally 
knew  him  to  be  incapable.  By  his  own  act,  primarily,  he 
was  leaving  public  life,  yet  his  influence  with  the  people 
was  still  almost  unbounded.  Nothing,  probably,  but  the 
prestige  of  the  conqueror  of  the  Rebellion  had  kept  him 
from  the  White  House  these  eight  years,  and  that  would 
be  wanting  the  next  eight  years.  Any  other  Republican 
might  be  beaten,  but  not  Colfax.  Not  only  to  shelve  him 
for  the  future  did  the  wolves  of  politics  howl  upon  his 
track,  but  to  pay  off  old  scores.  Since  1854  no  man  had 
stood  more  squarely  and  immovably  in  the  path  of  the  up- 
holders of  slavery,  South  and  North.  He  was  not  and  had 
never  been  a  favorite  with  the  "  workers"  of  his  own  party. 
He  was  not  their  style  of  man.  To  the  "  strikers"  of 
men  who  were  supposed  to  be  Presidential  possibilities^ 
his  downfall  was  desirable,  because  he  was  ahead  of  their 
favorites  in  the  line  of  succession.  The  world  of  free  livers, 
to  whom  his  upright  life  was  a  standing  reproach,  had 
wearied  of  his  praises.  He  was  hated  by  all  low  minds,  to 
which  it  is  a  delight  to  think  and  call  an  eminent  man  a 
"  thief"  or  "  scoundrel,"  because  it  is  an  easy  assertion  of 
equality  and  a  cheap  way  of  gratifying  at  once  vanity, 
spite,  envy,  and  hatred  of  all  excellence.  He  had  the  hos- 
tility of  a  clique  of  Washington  correspondents.  "  After 
his  election  to  the  Vice-Presidency,  he  would  not  look  at  a 
newspaper  man,"  they  said. 

The  path  of  a  public  man  in  a  democracy  is  not  a  flow- 
ery path.  Every  step  he  takes  is  over  prostrate  rivals,  who 
from  that  moment  are  his  open  or  secret  foes.  The  higher 
he  climbs  the  more  numerous,  the  more  merciless,  the 
more  interested  are  his  critics.  With  his  happy  tempera- 
ment, Schuyler  Colfax  had  made  few  enemies  in  reaching 


CREDIT   MOBILIER.  433 

the  high  positions  which  he  so  long  honored.  But  when, 
upon  his  election  to  the  Vice-Presidency,  he  declined  to  be- 
come a  general  office-beggar,  he  made  them  so  fast  as  to 
soon  have  his  full  quota.  When,  afterward,  he  voluntarily 
stepped  out  of  the  line  of  promotion,  those  who  had  ad- 
hered to  his  fortunes  merely  in  the  hope  of  bettering  their 
own  deserted  him,  and  became  the  parasites  of  some  other 
and  still  rising  man.  Forced  into  a  second  candidacy, 
and  beaten  by  a  "scratch,"  when  this  storm  smote  him, 
he  was  virtually  a  private  citizen,  his  career  of  power  and 
helpfulness  already  run  and  finished.  The  clubs  in  the 
orchard  show  which  are  the  best  apple  trees.  The  bitter- 
ness and  persistence  of  his  motley  assailants  were  propor- 
tioned to  the  strength  of  his  position  and  the  necessity 
they  felt,  that  he  should  be  dislodged  from  it. 

His  own  word  would  have  been  ample  defence  but  that 
he  had  unwittingly  impaired  its  power.  In  refuting  the 
charges  of  the  campaign  at  South  Bend  the  previous  Sep- 
tember, he  had  been  carried  by  the  excitement  of  speaking 
into  a  personal  reference  which  stopped  short  of  "  telling 
the  people  just  the  extent  of  his  connection  with  the 
Credit  Mobilier."  '-  It  was  a  part  of  the  brutality  of  the 
epidemic  of  detraction  which  accompanied  the  investi- 
gation to  charge  this  casual  omission  as  a  purposed  sin 
of  commission  ;  to  impute  it  to  the  Vice-President  as  an 
intentional  concealment,  evasion,  or  prevarication  ;  and 
upon  the  strength  of  this  imputation  to  discredit  his  word, 
to  decide  all  doubtful  points  and  suspicious  appearances 
against  him,  to  pervert  and  distort  his  successive  state- 


1.  Senator  D.  D.  Pratt,  of  Indiana,  wrote  him : 

u  I  have  thought  that  he  [Ames]  was  honest  in  his  statement  of  his  memory  of  the 
transaction,  while  I  never  doubted  for  a  moment  that  he  was  mistaken,  and  that  your 
version  was  the  true  one.  Such,  I  have  little  doubt,  will  he  the  ultimate  judgment  of 
all,  as  it  already  is  of  most.  It  is  a  matter  of  great  satisfaction  to  see  the  clouds  of  ob- 
loquy rolling  away  in  the  distance,  and  to  know  that  the  great  majority  of  your  friends 
retain  a  steadfast  confidence  in  your  integrity  and  honor. 

"  Will  you  pardon  my  freedom  for  repeating  what  I  hear  every  day  said  by  them  ? 
'Colfax  is  all  right ;  the  only  mistake  he  committed  was  in  the  beginning,  when  last  fall 
he  did  not  tell  the  people  just  the  extent  of  his  connection  with  the  Credit  Mobilier.  No 
one  would  have  censured  him  at  all  if  he  had  made  a  frank  disclosure  of-how  far  he  went, 
and  the  reason  why  he  went  no  farther.  He  erred  in  his  lack  of  faith  in  the  public  to 
readily  pardon  his  mistake.' " 


436  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

incident  of  the  speech.  It  shows  for  itself  that  it  was  un- 
considered,  introduced  on  the  spur  of  the  moment.  "  At 
first  I  did  not  intend  to  refer  to  myself  at  all,  as  I  was  not 
a  candidate,  and  had  never  had  any  of  the  stock  nor  its 
dividends."  He  did  not  think  of  himself  as  in  the  confes- 
sional. In  view  of  the  demands  of  the  occasion,  as  they 
evidently  appeared  to  him  at  the  time,  the  speech  was  a 
perfectly  frank  utterance,  although  it  was  afterward  per- 
verted to  his  discredit  and  damage,  and  made  the  pretext 
and  justification  of  untold  wrong  to  him. 

This  misjudgment  should  cease,  particularly  in  the 
mouths  of  men  who  do  not  mean  to  be  unjust,  but  who 
thoughtlessly  repeat  what  they  hear  other  men  say.  If 
Mr.  Colfax  ever  received  Credit  Mobilier  stock  or  divi- 
dends, he  not  only  purposely  concealed  something  in  this 
speech — he  told  untruths.  If  he  never  received  Credit 
Mobilier  stock  or  dividends,  there  is  no  ground  for  the 
charge  of  evasion  or  concealment  to  stand  upon,  for  he 
had  nothing  to  evade  or  conceal.  He  must  be  either  ad- 
judged guilty  of  all,  or  absolved  of  all.  He  denied  re- 
ceipt of  the  stock  or  dividends  ;  the  stock-broker  admitted 
that  he  had  never  received  the  stock  ;  and  while  claiming 
that  he  had  received  part  of  the  dividends,  was  unable  to 
furnish  any  evidence  of  it. 

It  is  easy  to  say  he  should  have  defied,  not  defended. 
A  man  may  defy  the  political  assaults  of  his  political  op- 
ponents. It  is  the  practice  of  politicians  to  assail  one  an- 
other. But  the  political  assaults  of  political  associates  have 
been  known  to  kill.  What  else  killed  Webster  or  Greeley 
or  Sumner  ?  Personal  integrity  is  an  infinitely  more  pre- 
cious and  delicate  plant  than  political  integrity.  A  stain  on 
one's  personal  honor  is  like  a  wound  ;  it  may  heal,  but  it 
leaves  a  scar.  With  his  reputation  for  personal  honor  seri- 
ously impugned,  whether  by  enemies  or  friends,  political 
or  otherwise,  and  really  suspected,  life  becomes  a  burden 
to  an  honorable  man,  unless  he  can  clear  himself  from  the 
imputation  and  kill  the  suspicion.  General  and  President 
Grant  paid  no  attention  to  military  or  political  assaults. 
But  when  that  phenomenal  Wall  Street  operator,  Ferdi- 


CREDIT   MOBILIER.  437 

nand  Ward,  under  cover  of  Grant's  name,  stole  seventeen 
millions  of  other  people's  money,  although,  instead  of  the 
worst  being  assumed  and  charged,  as  in  Colfax's  case, 
all  men  hastened  to  assure  Grant  that  suspicion  did  not 
and  should  not  attach  to  him,  the  imperturbable  Grant, 
whom  the  shock  of  armies  failed  to  move,  went  into  a  de- 
cline, and  within  a  few  months  sank  down  to  his  final  rest. 
The  blow  broke  his  heart.  Sensitiveness  to  a  stain  on  one's 
honor  is  inseparable  from  any  sense  of  honor.  Colfax 
alive  was  Colfax  defending  his  good  name,  if  attainted,  at 
every  point. 

His  struggle  with  this  calamity  was  that  of  a  hero.  He 
neither  struck  down  his  accuser,  as  many  men  would  have 
done,  nor  put  an  end  to  his  own  life.  He  did  not  die  in 
the  storm  or  from  its  effects.  He  breasted  it  with  all  his 
powers,  he  weathered  it.  It  cast  a  shadow  over  his  later 
years,  but  he  did  not  permit  it  to  embitter  him.  Of  phe- 
nomenal sweetness  of  temper  and  of  high  aims,  he  grew 
sweeter  in  temper  and  loftier  in  aim  the  longer  he  lived. 
Not  by  the  breadth  of  a  hair  did  it  lessen  his  loyalty  to  any 
obligation.  And  when  the  people  recovered  their  senses, 
he  was  given  to  understand  in  a  thousand  ways  that  they 
held  him  in  the  same  high  estimation  as  before  this  tempest 
momentarily  swept  them  from  their  moorings. 

After  his  death  a  sealed  letter  was  found  in  his  travel- 
ling-bag, where  he  had  carried  it  nine  years,  superscribed  : 
-"  Mrs.  Colfax.  For  her  and  Schuy.  Written  at  Boston, 
December,  1875."  It  reached  them  only  after  news  of  his 
death,  which  was  sudden,  and  away  from  home.  The  let- 
ter begins  : 

"  BOSTON,  MASS.,  December  8,  1875. 

"  MY  DEAR  WIFE  :  I  have  often  thought,  with  the  risk  of  accident, 
travelling  so  much  in  my  lecturing  tours,  I  would  write  a  full  and  con- 
nected statement  of  facts,  with  which  you  are  so  familiar,  for  yourself,  and 
especially  for  our  little  boy." 

He  tells  the  story  as  he  always  told  it,  and  closes  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  When  our  little  boy  is  old  enough  to  understand  all  this,  if  he 
knows  anything  then  of  the  base  and  wicked  calumnies  to  which  his 


438  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

father  was  subjected  by  enemies  and  ingrates,  he  will  realize  what  a  faith- 
ful and  honest  public  servant  received  for  twenty  years  of  the  prime  of 
his  life  given  to  the  service  of  his  country.  And  all  that  sustained  me  in 
that  wild  storm  of  calumny  that  raged  about  me  was  the  knowledge  that 
God  at  the  last  day  would  make  my  honesty  and  truthfulness  known  of 
all  men,  and  that  my  dear  wife  knew  it  and  confided  to  the  uttermost 
in  her  loving  and  devoted  husband, 

"  SCHUYLER  COLFAX." 

The  Boston  Advertiser,  speaking  of  this  "  epidemic  of 
calumny/'  as  it  terms  it,  says  : 

"  One  mystery  unexplained  suggested  another  ;  one  difficulty  led  to  a 
score  of  new  ones  ;  and  that  mighty  agency,  the  press,  seized  upon  every 
petty  insinuation  and  every  scrap  of  idle  gossip  smirching  the  character 
of  men  whose  names  were  of  any  value,  and  spread  them  before  the 
country  as  proofs  of  universal  public  corruption.  With  many  the  line 
between  truth  and  falsehood  became  it  this  way  utterly  obliterated." 

Commenting  on  the  action  of  the  House,  the  Boston 
Journal  said  : 

"  It  was  as  fair  and  reasonable  as  we  had  any  right  to  anticipate  under 
the  circumstances.  The  mere  fact  of  a  member's  owning  stock  amounts 
to  nothing  in  itself.  No  man  in  these  times  can  own  property  which  may 
not  be  affected  by  legislation,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  legislator  may 
officially  act  with  regard  to  a  particular  class  of  property  without  being  in 
the  least  affected  by  the  fact  of  his  ownership  in  it.  It  is  outrageous  to 
presume  corruption  in  any  such  case  ;  that  is  only  to  be  deduced  from 
the  clear  evidence  of  wrongful  votes  or  other  reprehensible  action." 

The  following  are  the  concluding  comments  of  the  New 
York  Commercial  Advertiser  on  the  action  of  the  House  : 

"  No  crime  or  guilt  is  found,  and  a  vote  simply  of  censure  is  passed, 
which  was  extorted  rather  from  the  deference  of  Congress  to  an  assumed 
public  sentiment  than  from  its  sense  of  justice.  The  matter  has  derived 
its  whole  importance  from  the  agitation  of  outsiders,  from  the  clamor  of 
a  partisan  press,  and  from  the  timid  policy  pursued  by  members  of  Con- 
gress when  the  charges,  so  perverted  by  malice,  were  brought  against 
them.  Much  more  importance  has  been  given  to  this  matter  than  it  de- 
served. No  one  can  believe  that  men  like  Henry  Wilson,  Colfax,  Dawes, 
Garfield,  and  Kelley,  who  have  had  opportunities  during  the  last  ten 
years  to  make  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  by  the  scratch  of  a  pen  or  a 
nod  of  the  head,  could  at  this  late  day  engage  in  a  corrupt  bargain  with 
Oakes  Ames  in  his  picayune  transaction  of  ten  shares  of  Credit  Mobilier 
stock.  Every  man  at  all  familiar  with  the  affairs  of  Congress  understands 
that  Dawes,  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  if  a 


CREDIT   MOBILIER.  439 

venal  man,  would  not  be  chasing  around  Washington  inquiring  how  to 
invest  one  thousand  dollars,  so  that  it  would  pay  more  than  seven  per 
cent.  The  same  is  true  of  Garfield,  Colfax,  Wilson,  and  Kelley.  These 
men,  from  the  positions  they  held  on  committees,  if  dishonest  men,  would 
not  have  engaged  in  any  such  paltry  transaction,  when  thousands  were  to 
be  made  in  a  different  direction.  The  whole  affair  has  been  magnified  by 
political  demagogues  and  newspaper  Bohemians.  The  press  is  too  ready 
to  pounce  upon  every  public  man  as  venal.  The  public  accept  the  views 
of  the  political  and  sensational  press,  and  thus  we  have  an  unhealthy  sen- 
timent. The  House  acted  properly  in  the  course  it  adopted." 

"  The  three  papers  from  which  we  quote  these  ex- 
tracts," says  the  Baltimore  American,  "are  among  those 
that  have  not  had  their  editorial  sanctums  invaded  by 
Washington  Bohemians,  who  have  entered  into  a  conspi- 
racy to  destroy  all  those  leading  men  of  the  country  who 
are  known  to  be  too  pure  to  lend  themselves  to  their  cor- 
rupt purposes.  It  was  this  Bohemian  combination  that 
deluded  Mr.  Greeley  into  the  acceptance  of  the  Cincinnati 
nomination,  ultimately  driving  him  to  insanity  and  a  prem- 
ature grave,  and  they  are  now  making  their  first  move 
for  the  next  Presidency.  That  many  able  and  honest 
journals  have  been  deluded  by  their  clamor  and  slander  is 
much  to  be  regretted,  but  we  still  have  confidence  that 
they  will  make  haste  to  undo  the  evil  and  make  amends 
for  the  wrong  they  have  done  to  some  of  the  purest  and 
best  men  of  the  nation." 

The  following  review  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  scandal  is 
from  the  Philadelphia  North  American  of  August  i6th,  1873  : 

"  We  suppose  that  not  many  intelligent  people  were  led  into  the  error 
of  believing  that  the  extraordinary  clamor  that  greeted  the  Credit  Mobilier 
revelations  was  due  to  any  moral  shock  imparted  by  those  revelations. 
If  anybody  fell  into  such  an  error,  he  may  as  well  disabuse  his  mind  with- 
out further  ceremony.  The  tone  of  the  outcry  was  peculiar  from  first  to 
last.  The  spirit  of  the  press  did  not  differ  at  all  from  the  spirit  actuating 
verbal  comment  upon  any  neighborhood  scandal,  cases  of  which  are  so 
common  that  every  adult  person  is  perfectly  familiar  with  the  phenome- 
non. It  is  a  mean,  low,  and  utterly  contemptible  spirit  at  best,  born  of 
an  overwhelming  desire  to  believe  the  worst.  It  is  a  spirit  that  invests 
vague  rumor  with  all  the  importance  of  well-ascertained  fact  and  ele- 
vates mole-eyed  surmise  to  the  dignity  of  undisputed  truth.  The  motive 
of  the  press  generally,  interpreted  by  its  action,  was  not  so  much  to  set 
the  seal  of  condemnation  upon  the  disreputable  transactions  of  the  Credit 


440  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Mobil ier  managers,  as  to  drag  reputation  in  the  mire  and  create  the  im- 
pression that  the  best  of  men  are  little  better  than  whitewashed  scoundrels. 
It  was  altogether  the  most  painful  exhibit  of  the  failure  of  journalism  to 
conserve  public  morals  ever  made  in  this  country. 

"  It  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  that  the  scandal  was  bred  in  the  name- 
less ferment  of  political  quarrel  ;  and  this  fact  should  have  made  men 
cautious  in  receiving  and  accepting  the  thousand  and  one  rumors  certain 
to  arise  upon  formal  investigation.  But  it  did  not.  No  sooner  did  rumor 
involve  any  individual  than  the  press  made  haste  to  amplify  and  elaborate 
the  rumor,  until  the  public  was  in  a  way  compelled  to  accept  informal 
accusation  as  tantamount  to  formal  conviction.  The  press  seemed  to  re- 
solve itself  into  an  army  of  prosecuting  attorneys,  intent  not  upon  justice, 
but  upon  gaining  the  case  it  had  volunteered  to  prosecute.  AH  the  minor 
tricks  known  to  fourth-rate  lawyers  were  resorted  to,  and  that  the  Ameri- 
can people,  sitting  as  jurors,  were  not  reduced  to  a  condition  of  hopeless 
embarrassment  must  be  counted  to  their  credit.  Though  the  principal 
witness  prevaricated  to  an  extent  that  would  have  put  him  out  of  court  in 
any  other  case,  the  jury  was  continually  instructed  that  all  that  this  wit- 
ness let  drop  in  its  nature  and  terms  adverse  to  the  accused  was  to  be 
accepted  as  irrefragable.  No  sooner  did  insinuation  brush  the  garments 
of  any  publicist  than  he  was  at  once  declared  guilty,  and  challenged  to 
prove  his  innocence.  Proof  of  a  negative  is  often  easy  enough,  yet  the 
purest  man  sometimes  makes  the  essay  and  fails.  He  is  placed  at  a  dis- 
advantage in  the  start,  and  a  shrewd  attorney  has  it  in  his  power  to  main- 
tain that  disadvantage  to  the  end.  Unlike  the  professional  rogue,  he  has 
never  contemplated  himself  as  an  occupant  of  the  prisoner's  dock.  The 
situation  is  new  to  him,  and  all  his  available  resources  may,  perhaps,  be 
summed  up  in  conscious  innocence.  Not  one  man  in  a  hundred  can  out 
of  head  recall  the  transactions  of  a  life  in  detail  and  show  their  connec- 
tion and  bearing  to  be  adverse  to  the  theory  of  guilt  put  forward  by  his 
accusers. 

"  How  much  bitter  and  irretrievable  wrong  was  inflicted  upon  individ- 
uals by  the  press  during  the  Credit  Mobilier  investigation  may  never  be 
exactly  determined.  The  case  of  Mr.  Colfax,  however,  attracting  most 
attention  from  first  to  last,  chiefly  by  reason  of  his  previous  high  stand- 
ing, will  serve  to  show  that  there  may  be  more  than  one  side  to  an  inves- 
tigation into  character.  The  evidence  offered  to  prove  that  he  knowingly 
or  intentionally  profited  by  any  Credit  Mobilier  transactions  was  never, 
calmly  considered,  of  much  account.  But  for  alleged  coincidences  the 
charge  must  have  fallen  to  the  ground  early  in  the  investigation.  And  of 
late  the  public  has  been  informed  in  certain  particulars  which  go  far  to 
prove  that  the  alleged  coincidences  were  not  coincidences  at  all.  The 
testimony  of  Mr.  Dillon  was  that  he  paid  the  check  in  dispute  to  Mr. 
Ames  to  the  best  of  his  knowledge  and  belief.  Mr.  Drew,  absent  and  in 
Europe  during  the  investigation,  declares  that  he  saw  Mr.  Ames  present 
and  receive  the  cash  for  a  check  for  twelve  hundred  dollars  payable  to 


CREDIT  MOBILIER.  441 

'  S.  C.'  And  now  General  Fisk  publicly  declares  that  Mr.  Ames  admitted 
to  him  that  he  was  satisfied  that  Mr.  Colfax  never  saw  the  check  alluded 
to.  These  witnesses  are  said  to  be  reliable,  and  no  doubt  they  tell  the 
truth.  At  all  events,  they  are  as  worthy  of  belief  as  Mr.  Ames  ever  was. 
Admitting  the  testimony  to  be  credible,  some  idea  of  the  wrong  inflicted 
upon  Mr.  Colfax  may  at  once  be  comprehended. 

"  Of  course  it  is  possible  to  inflict  such  injuries  without  malice.  But 
there  was  malice,  and  a  very  wicked  quality  of  malice,  in  the  crusade 
against  Mr.  Colfax.  There  was  besides  malice  a  superserviceable  eager- 
ness on  the  part  of  Republican  politicians  to  seem  willing  to  punish  a 
member  of  the  political  family.  Such  persons  mistook  their  eagerness 
to  punish,  before  conviction,  for  Roman  virtue.  Alas  !  Roman  virtue  is 
only  a  tradition  ;  but  such  as  we  have  any  account  of  was  the  reverse  of 
self-conscious.  It  was  stern  and  unyielding  ;  the  very  essence  of  self- 
denial.  The  traditional  Roman  did  not  hand  over  his  own  flesh  and 
blood  to  the  executioner  upon  vague  rumor,  nor  as  a  matter  of  self-glori- 
fication upon  any  proofs  whatever.  Justice  can  wait  upon  proof  always 
without  detriment  to  public  morals.  But  the  opportunity  to  degrade  a 
man  of  exceptionally  upright  life  proved  a  too  powerful  temptation  for 
such  of  our  journalists  as  affect  Roman  virtue.  Goodness  and  badness 
are  relative.  An  exceptionally  good  man  in  a  community  rather  below 
than  above  the  average  of  goodness,  and  an  exceptionally  bad  man  in  a 
community  rather  above  the  average  of  goodness,  become  equally  the  ob- 
jects of  jealousy  and  suspicion,  and  both  may  be  lynched  in  a  moment  of 
public  frenzy. 

"  But  were  the  innocence  of  Mr.  Colfax  made  as  clear  as  the  sun  at 
noon,  the  public  injury  inflicted  upon  him  could  never  be  repaired.  The 
press  is  nothing  if  not  infallible.  '  It  may  be  disgraceful  to  steal,  but  it 
is  infamous  to  be  detected,'  was  the  maxim  of  a  noted  criminal.  So  one 
kind  of  journalism  appears  to  hold  it  infamy  to  acknowledge  a  blunder. 
And  the  press  of  this  country  has  most  certainly  blundered  in  its  treat- 
ment of  Mr.  Colfax.  We  shall  see  whether  it  can  rise  to  the  level  of  the 
occasion." 


CHAPTER  XV. 
OUT   OF   OFFICE. 

1873-1885. 

BUSIER  THAN  EVER.  —  OVERRUN  WITH  CALLS  FOR  SPEAKING.  —  A 
SERIES  OF  POPULAR  OVATIONS. — RECEPTION  IN  MINNESOTA,  IN  THE 
WEST,  IN  NEW  YORK,  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. — A  UNANIMOUS  ELEC- 
TION TO  CONGRESS  TENDERED,  AND  DECLINED.  —  THE  PEOPLE'S 
ANSWER  TO  His  DEFAMERS. — RECEPTION  IN  COLORADO. — TRIBUTE 
TO  LINCOLN  AT  THE  CAPITAL  OF  ILLINOIS. — ADOPTS  LECTURING  AS 
A  PROFESSION. — RECEPTION  IN  CANADA. — TRIBUTE  TO  HENRY  WIL- 
SON.— WHY  HE  DID  NOT  WRITE  A  BOOK. — His  TWELVE  YEARS' 
WORK. — APPOINTMENTS  HE  DID  NOT  LIVE  TO  FILL. 

AT  home  the  ex-Vice-President  was  soon  busy  in  a 
Temperance  revival,  speaking  in  the  churches  in  South 
Bend  and  in  adjacent  towns.  He  received  invitations  from 
thirty  places  to  address  the  Odd  Fellows  on  their  April 
anniversary.  He  accepted  an  invitation  from  Greencastle, 
Ind.,  and  a  second  from  Erie,  Pa.,  the  latter  on  a  post- 
poned date.  Passing  through  Lafayette  on  his  way  to 
Greencastle,  the  Odd  Fellows  gave  him  a  public  reception. 
In  June  he  addressed  the  college  societies  of  Otterbein  Uni- 
versity, near  Westerville,  O.  The  University  conferred 
upon  him  the  degree  of  LL.D.1  On  the  ist  of  July  he  lect- 
ured on  Odd  Fellowship  at  St.  Joseph,  Mich.,  and  having 
a  similar  address  to  make  the  next  day  at  Big  Rapids, 
Hon.  Alexander  H.  Morrison,  builder  and  President  of  the 
Lake  Shore  Railroad,  organized  an  excursion  party  to 
escort  him  thither.  "  The  trip  was  a  perfect  ovation  to 
the  distinguished  guest  from  all  parties,"  said  a  press  dis- 
patch. Word  was  sent  on  in  advance,  and  the  people  of 
the  towns  and  vicinity  were  gathered  at  every  station  to 

1.  Mr.  Coif  ax  had  received  this  distinction  from  the  Indiana  University  at  Blooming- 
ton  in  June,  1869. 


OUT   OF  OFFICE.  443 

greet  him,  one  party,  with  a  band,  coming  into  Fremont 
Centre  from  Hesperia,  twelve  miles  distant.  He  spoke 
briefly  at  every  station  on  the  line.  In  a  4th  of  July  ora- 
tion at  St.  Joseph,  he  discussed  the  railroad  question,  the 
Indianapolis  Sentinel  publishing  his  remarks,  and  saying  that 
"  consideration  of  them  would  steady  the  theories  of  those 
who  believed  in  railroad  control  by  the  people."  Caught 
in  Evanston,  111.,  on  the  Sabbath,  a  little  later,  he  addressed 
the  Presbyterian  Sabbath-school  in  the  afternoon.  "  Long 
before  the  hour  of  commencement  the  church  was  crowded, 
every  foot  of  standing  room  being  occupied,  and  a  great 
number  compelled  to  turn  away/'  The  Rev.  George  C. 
Noyes  gave  him  a  reception  in  his  parlors  Saturday  even- 
ing, which  was  thronged  by  the  foremost  citizens  of  Evan- 
ston. 

In  August,  in  company  with  his  friends,  Mr.  S.  M. 
Shoemaker,  wife,  and  daughters,  of  Baltimore,  the  ex- 
Vice-President  and  Mrs.  Colfax  visited  Minnesota  as  the 
guests  of  Senator  Windom.  From  Winona,  Senator  Win- 
dom's  home,  they  were  accompanied  to  Minneapolis  by  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Windom,  the  Minneapolis  Tribune,  in  announcing 
their  arrival,  saying  :  "  Thousands  of  friends  and  admirers 
give  to  the  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax  an  earnest  welcome  to 
Minnesota."  The  party  "  were  charmed  with  the  beauties 
of  Minneapolis,  Minnetonka,  Minnehaha,  of  Lake  Harriet 
and  Lake  Calhoun,  of  the  Dalles  of  the  St.  Croix,  and  with 
the  hospitality  and  courtesies  extended  to  them  by  our  cit- 
izens." Mr.  Colfax  took  part  in  the  dedication  of  a  new- 
Odd  Fellows'  Hall  in  Minneapolis.  Receiving  some  agree- 
able additions  to  their  party,  they  visited  Duluth,  and  ran 
out  on  the  Northern  Pacific  to  Bismarck.  Ascertaining 
when  they  would  return,  the  people  about  Detroit  Lake 
collected  by  hundreds,  captured  the  party,  banqueted 
them,  and  gave  them  a  sail  on  the  lake. 

September  ist  Mr.  Colfax  wrote  Mr.  Sinclair  :  "  I  find 
it  hard  to  get  rid  of  speaking,  for  I  have  already  declined 
over  two  hundred  speaking  invitations  this  season,  but 
acceptances  are  actually  extorted  out  of  me  until  I  find 
I  have  one  to  three  engagements  per  week  through  Sep- 


444  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

tember  and  October  from  your  State  to  Minnesota."  These 
months  were  largely  taken  up  with  speaking  at  agricult- 
ural fairs.  Extraordinary  crowds  were  drawn  together  to 
hear  him.  He  discussed  semi-political  questions — trans- 
portation, tariff,  finance — as  well  as  farm  topics.  "  After 
Mr.  Colfax  had  finished  his  address,"  said  a  Freeport,  111., 
dispatch,  "  thousands  pressed  forward  to  take  him  by  the 
hand.  At  night  he  was  serenaded  by  the  Freeport  Band, 
and  waited  upon  by  a  great  concourse  of  citizens,  among 
them  Mayor  Krohn  and  Mr.  Patterson,  leading  Demo- 
crats. Mr.  Patterson  introduced  the  ex-Vice-President  in 
a  warm  and  eulogistic  speech,  and  the  scenes  on  the  fair 
grounds  were  re-enacted." 

At  Valparaiso,  Ind.,  "  old  friends  clustered  about  him, 
wrung  his  hand,  and  assured  him  of  their  unalterable 
friendship,  as  if  he  were  a  brother  of  them  all,  and  had 
been  grossly  slandered  and  ill-treated."  At  Charlotte, 
Mich.,  "  after  the  speaking,"  said  the  Leader  [Democratic], 
"  a  genuine  old-fashioned  hand-shaking  took  place,  and 
for  half  an  hour  the  crowd  pressed  forward  to  shake  hands 
with  one  on  whom  the  country  leaned  with  confidence  in 
the  darkest  hour  of  its  history."  At  Monticello,  111.,  "  ex- 
Vice-President  Colfax  addressed  one  of  the  largest  crowds 
that  ever  assembled  in  Piatt  County.  At  the  close  of  the 
speech  hundreds  of  people  of  all  political  sentiments  made 
a  grand  rush  to  the  front  to  shake  the  hand  of  this  man." 
"  Ten  thousand  people  were  on  the  fair  grounds  to-day," 
ran  a  Galesburgh,  111.,  dispatch.  "  The  principal  event 
of  the  day  was  the  address  of  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax,  in 
which  he  discussed  the  relations  of  the  farmers  and  the 
railways  in  a  manner  to  win  the  commendation  of  the 
whole  farming  community."  Of  his  appearance  and  re- 
ception at  the  fair  of  St.  Lawrence  County,  N.  Y.,  the 
Potsdam  Courier  6°  Freeman  put  the  following  on  record  : 

"  The  affection  of  the  people  for  ex-Vice-President  Colfax  could  not 
have  been  more  positively  shown  than  it  was  here  last  week.  His  ad- 
dress held  the  large  audience  as  under  a  spell  ;  and  as  soon  as  the  address 
was  concluded  there  was  a  pressure  from  all  directions  to  reach  him. 
The  crowd  standing  on  the  ground  rushed  up  to  the  sides  of  the  stand, 


OUT   OF  OFFICE.  445 

and  compelled  him  to  reach  down  and  shake  with  both  hands  as  they 
passed.  When  he  came  to  the  platform  of  the  grand  stand  the  rush  was  so 
great  that  the  foundation  gave  away,  and  many  were  precipitated  to  the 
ground.  When  he  reached  the  end  of  the  stand,  he  was  forced  to  halt  and 
hold  an  impromptu  reception  on  the  spot,  which  was  continued,  without 
a  moment's  rest,  until  he  took  a  carriage  for  the  train.  During  the  ad- 
dress an  old  Republican  who  became  liberalized,  and  who  voted  for 
Greeley,  heard  the  speaker  about  twenty  minutes,  and  said  to  his  neigh- 
bor :  '  I  wanted  to  vote  for  that  man  for  President.'  The  speaker  went 
on,  and  the  hearer  paid  close  attention  for  twenty  minutes  longer,  when 
he  turned  to  his  neighbor  again,  saying  :  '  I  declare,  I  want  to  vote  for 
him  for  President  now.' ' 

He  was  the  favorite  lecturer  at  the  dedications,  installa- 
tions, anniversaries,  and  festal  reunions  of  his  brethren  of 
the  Mystic  Tie.  In  Cincinnati  this  November  he  addressed 
five  thousand  Odd  Fellows  and  their  friends  at  Exposition 
Hall.  Many  of  these  audiences  outside  of  the  large  cities 
came  together  from  a  wide  region,  and  were  equalled  in 
numbers  only  by  the  assemblages  at  the  county  agricult- 
ural fairs.  At  Lyons,  la.,  twenty  lodges  participated  ; 
the  procession  formed  in  Clinton  and  marched  to  Lyons 
in  the  rainy,  chilly  weather,  "  a  distance,  as  marched,  of 
four  miles/'  said  the  DeWitt  Observer.  The  speaking  was 
to  have  been  in  the  Odeon,  but  the  building  could  not  con- 
tain one  fourth  of  the  people.  So  the  orator  stood  in  a 
window,  and  sent  his  voice  far  up  and  down  the  thronged 
streets.  The  fraternity  of  all  North-eastern  Iowa  assembled 
at  Charles  City,  some  of  them  travelling  sixty  miles  in 
wagons.  "  The  announcement  of  an  oration  by  Schuyler 
Colfax  brought  in  large  delegations  from  all  the  neighbor- 
ing places,"  said  a  Mattoon,  111.,  dispatch.  "  The  proces- 
sion was  long  and  imposing,  and  in  spite  of  the  intense 
heat  Mr.  Colfax  held  the  audience  of  thousands  for  an  hour 
and  a  half  with  an  able  and  engaging  discussion  of  the 
principles  of  the  Order."  At  Paxton,  111.,  although  "it 
was  the  hottest,  dustiest,  busiest  day  of  the  season,  seven 
thousand  assembled  to  hear  Brother  Colfax.  He  spoke  for 
more  than  an  hour,  and  then,  at  the  urgent  appeal  of  all, 
fifteen  minutes  on  the  condition  of  the  country.  Notwith- 
standing the  thermometer  was  one  hundred  degrees  in  the 


446  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

shade,  the  vast  audience  remained  deeply  interested  in  the 
able  speech,  and  wanted  more.  When  he  closed  thousands 
went  forward  and  shook  his  hand.  Delegates  from  twenty 
lodges  were  present."  At  Yorkville,  111.,  Dr.  Ussher  wel- 
comed him,  saying  : 

"  Your  visits  to  this  section  have  been  so  far  apart  that  our  hearts  in- 
cline us  to  kill  the  fatted  calf  and  rejoice  as  a  happy  family  at  the  arrival 
of  our  favorite  brother.  Would  that  I  had  the  eloquence  of  Homer  to 
express  the  hearty  welcome  of  the  Fraternity  who  greet  you  here  to-day. 
Watched  from  boyhood  by  many  of  us  who  now  surround  you,  the  prom- 
ise of  your  early  life  has  been  fulfilled.  With  feelings  of  exultation,  we 
have  seen  you  climb  the  ladder  of  fame  ;  we  have  heard  your  eloquence 
ring  out  over  the  land  ;  we  have  watched  you  in  authority,  swift  as  an 
eagle,  grapple  with  wrong,  and  hand-in-hand  with  Justice  walk  in  the 
paths  of  rectitude.  Wreathed  with  the  talisman  of  Friendship,  Love,  and 
Truth,  you  have  entered  into  that  Holy  of  Holies,  that  dwelling  place  of 
God,  that  sanctuary— the  human  heart.  Above  its  portals  we  have  writ- 
ten the  words,  '  None  but  the  pure  can  enter  here.'  To  you,  our  brother, 
the  portals  of  our  hearts  are  ever  open.  We  gladly  welcome  you  among 
us,  and  thank  you  for  the  distinguished  honor  of  your  visit." 

At  Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  Colonel  James  W.  Woodruff  gave 
him  a  reception  at  his  residence  in  the  evening  before  the 
speaking.  "  A  large  number  of  the  leading  citizens  of  the 
town  called  and  were  introduced  to  the  distinguished  vis- 
itor." Many  members  of  the  Order  from  New  York  City 
attended  the  lecture.  At  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  he  was  re- 
ceived at  the  depot  by  a  delegation  of  the  brethren,  ban- 
queted at  the  National  Hotel,  escorted  on  a  visit  to  East- 
man College,  where  "  he  made  a  short  speech,  which  was 
received  with  rounds  of  applause."  The  Opera  House  was 
packed  from  pit  to  dome  in  the  evening  to  listen  to  his 
lecture.  "  The  Odd  Fellows  cannot  but  be  gratified  at 
the  reception  given  their  orator,"  said  the  News  (Demo- 
cratic). At  Oneida,  N.  Y.,  "  the  crowd  gathered  around 
Mr.  Colfax  after  the  speaking,  anxious  to  take  him  by  the 
hand,"  said  the  Roman  Citizen.  "  The  most  enthusiastic 
compliments  greeted  him  on  every  hand,  and  no  one  who 
witnessed  the  scene  could  doubt  that  the  distinguished 
gentleman's  hold  on  the  popular  heart  is  as  strong  as  ever 
it  was  in  the  past/'  . 


OUT  OF  OFFICE.  447 

At  Springfield,  Mass.,  he  was  received  with  a  great 
street  demonstration,  procession,  and  music,  and  enter- 
tained by  Colonel  Thompson,  who  gave  him  a  reception  at 
his  residence.  The  Springfield  Union  said  :  "  Mr.  Colfax 
was  greeted  last  night  at  the  Opera  House  with  much  of 
the  old  enthusiasm.  The  hall  was  crowded,  and  the  ad- 
dress was  followed  by  a  general  hand-shaking."  At  New 
Haven,  Conn.,  the  people  thronged  the  depot  and  its  ap- 
proaches ;  hardly  could  a  landing  from  the  train  be  effected 
without  the  aid  of  the  police,  and  crowds  filled  the  side- 
walks all  the  way  up  to  the  New  Haven  House.  "  Used 
as  he  has  been  to  ovations,"  said  the  New  Haven  Union, 
"  he  could  not  have  been  otherwise  than  pleased  by  the 
spontaneous  cordiality  with  which  he  was  received." 

Speaking  of  Odd  Fellowship  on  this  occasion,  he  said  : 

"  Its  altars  are  consecrated  to  the  purest  morality,  its  walls  profaned 
by  no  bacchanalian  orgies.  It  stands  a  beautiful  temple,  its  base  resting 
on  the  grand  principle  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of 
man,  recognizing  one  nation,  the  earth,  and  one  race,  mankind,  governed 
by  the  injunction  to  deal  justly  and  love  mercy.  Charity,  too,  and  hospi- 
tality, hope,  benevolence,  and  friendship  are  inculcated  by  Odd  Fellow- 
ship, and  stand  as  pillars  in  the  great  temple  of  our  Order.  Standing 
amid  these  pillars,  we  look  up  to  the  great  dome  over  us,  whereon  is  in- 
scribed '  TRUTH,'  and  to  the  roof  sheltering  us  from  bigotry,  and  we  see 
the  first  and  greatest  principle  of  our  Order,  the  Golden  Rule.  To  com- 
fort the  sorrowing,  cheer  the  broken-hearted,  and  wipe  away  all  tears — 
these  are  the  objects  of  Odd  Fellowship,  and  their  faithful  accomplish- 
ment is  the  proudest  reward  we  can  ask,  the  highest  meed  of  praise  that 
we  can  ever  gain." 

At  Bridgeport  the  Bridgeport  Standard  said  :  "  Mr.  Col- 
fax  was  seated  in  an  open  carriage,  with  distinguished 
members  of  the  Order,  and  the  procession  moved  through 
the  streets  amid  the  plaudits  of  thousands  of  spectators 
until  they  reached  the  Sterling  House.  In  the  evening  the 
Opera  House  was  filled  with  those  anxious  to  hear  the  re- 
nowned orator  and  statesman  discourse  upon  the  character 
and  merits  of  a  benevolent  organization  whose  good  works 
are  generally  very  inadequately  understood."  On  behalf 
of  the  lodge,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Briggs,  chaplain,  presented  him 
a  gold-headed  cane,  saying  :  "  This  gold  is  emblematical 


448  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

of  the  purity  and  brilliancy  of  your  character  ;  the  steel 
ferrule  illustrates  the  firmness  and  trueness  of  your  prin- 
ciples ;  while  the  wood  represents  the  perishable  nature  of 
the  calumnies  uttered  against  you."  Returning  to  the 
West  through  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  the  Commercial  of  that  city 
noted  a  marked  improvement  in  his  health  "  There  are 
few  public  men,"  it  said,  "  who  have  '  worn  the  white 
flower  of  a  blameless  life '  in  as  knightly  a  manner  as  Mr. 
Colfax  has,  or  respecting  whom  that  fierce  light  which  in- 
cessantly beats  upon  them,  blackening  every  blot,  has  re- 
vealed so  stainless  and  clean  a  breast.  He  has  nobly  won 
his  laurelled  rest." 

On  the  i5th  of  January,  1874,  his  stepfather,  Mr.  Mat- 
thews, followed  his  mother  into  the  land  of  shadows. 
Without  doubt  he  died  many  years  sooner  than  he  would 
but  for  the  assiduity  with  which  he  nursed  his  wife  through 
her  four  years  of  living  death.  Almost  all  the  years  of 
Colfax's  life  they  had  been  companions,  and  he  missed  his 
stepfather  exceedingly.  He  wrote  Mrs.  Hollister  :  "  I  feel 
more  and  more  as  the  days  pass  by  how  intertwined  he 
was  with  my  life  and  thoughts  ;  how  I  need  to  talk  to  him 
about  so  many  things  ;  how  I  miss  his  affectionate  counsel- 
lings,  his  loving  face  at  the  table,  in  our  sitting-room,  and 
all.  He  did  love  me,  the  dear  good  friend  of  my  youth 
and  manhood.  No  father  could  have  loved  me  more,  and 
I  loved  him  so  much."  Esquire  Matthews  was  a  man  of 
refinement  and  culture,  genuine,  stanch  as  the  hills.  Mr. 
Colfax  settled  his  estate,  attending  to  its  distribution 
among  the  Squire's  own  children,  declining  any  part  of 
it  himself,  or  pay  for  his  services  as  administrator. 

February  5th,  1874,  he  wrote  Senator  Anthony  as 
follows  : 

"  I  hope  you  are  enjoying  the  winter  at  Washington,  with  its  gayeties, 
as  you  generally  do,  presiding  at  Republican  caucuses,  and  often  in  the 
Chair  of  the  Senate,  saying  pleasant  and  complimentary  things  to  the 
ladies,  and  basking  in  their  smiles,  as  is  your  happy  fate.  As  for  myself, 
I  have  realized  that  the  truest  happiness  is  not  in  belonging  to  the  many- 
headed  public,  but  to  your  family  and  yourself,  and  I  wonder  how  I  could 
have  remained  in  it  twenty  years.  My  old  constituents  in  great  numbers 
insist  that  I  must  go  back  to  the  House  from  my  old  district,  in  which 


OUT   OF  OFFICE.  449 

many  Democrats  join  ;  but  I  can  imagine  no  temptation  or  emergency 
that  could  induce  me  to  return  to  public  life  again." 

Participating  in  the  ceremonies  of  Decoration  Day  at 
South  Bend,  he  said  : 

"  While  at  the  grave  we  should  bury  all  enmities  and  antagonisms,  I 
cannot  concur  with  those  who  insist  that  the  graves  of  those  who  died 
fighting  to  destroy  their  country  should  be  decorated  equally  with  those 
who  gave  their  lives  for  the  nation's  preservation.  This  annual  testi- 
monial is  not  merely  a  tribute  of  affection,  or  we  should  include  in  it  the 
graves  of  mothers,  wives,  children,  and  friends,  very  dear  as  they  were 
to  us,  with  which  our  cemetery  is  filled  ;  but  it  is  intended  as  a  com- 
memoration of  patriotism,  as  a  manifestation  of  gratitude  to  those  who 
sacrificed  so  much  for  their  country's  preservation,  and  as  an  inspiration 
to  the  youth  around  us  to  act  similarly,  if  the  dark  days  should  again 
dawn  on  our  country.  I  am  willing  to  forget  and  forgive,  and  to  ac- 
knowledge that  those  on  the  other  side  fought  sincerely,  and  with  a 
bravery  and  devotion  worthy  of  a  better  cause.  While  in  Congress  I 
voted  for  amnesty  to  all  who  would  seek  it.  But  Decoration  Day  will 
lose  all  its  significance  and  meaning  when,  if  ever,  it  shall  include  those 
who  fought,  however  mistakenly,  for  the  country's  destruction.  In  that 
case,  to  be  consistent,  we  should  honor  the  flags  of  the  Rebellion  in  the 
War  Department,  as  we  do  the  Stars  and  Stripes  ;  and  we  should  place 
by  the  side  of  the  picture  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol,  a  picture  of  the  signers  of  the  ordi- 
nance of  secession  which  inaugurated  the  Rebellion." 

In  a  letter  to  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry  of  Wabash 
County,  after  saying  that  two  years  before,  in  a  4th  of 
July  oration,  he  had  pointed  out  the  evils  which  the 
Grange  organization  was  principally  intended  to  remedy, 
he  continues  :  "  The  just  ground  on  which  all  just  men 
can  unite,  is  that  railroads  should  be  common  carriers  for 
all  on  common  grounds,  and  at  equitable  rates,  without 
unjust  discrimination  or  favoritism."  He  commended  the 
admission  of  women  to  the  Order,  and  its  firm  stand  for 
Temperance.  Independence  Day  saw  him  orator  at  Ypsi- 
lanti,  Mich.  The  multitude  gathered  on  that  occasion  was 
estimated  at  twenty-five  thousand.  He  discussed  "  the 
resistless  and  victorious  power  of  Right,  as  illustrated  in 
our  national  history." 

He  had  no  sooner  reached  home  on  his  retirement  from 
office  than  his  return  to  Congress  from  his  old  district  be- 


450  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

gan  to  be  agitated.  The  South  Bend  Tribune  of  April  26th, 
1873,  thought  it  was  forcing  the  season,  since  the  nominat- 
ing convention  was  a  full  year  in  the  future,  but  admitted 
that  in  view  of  recent  events  the  agitation  was  inevitable. 
"  The  feeling  is  general,"  it  said,  "  not  only  in  the  district 
and  State,  but  outside  of  the  State,  that  Mr.  Colfax  should 
be  returned  to  Congress  again.  We  have  before  us  letters 
from  several  States  asking  if  it  will  be  done,  and  urging  it 
in  the  strongest  terms."  The  Tribune  republished  the  fol- 
lowing from  the  Baltimore  American  of  April  2ist,  1873  : 

"  Mr.  Colfax  has  retired  to  private  life  with  the  full  confidence  of  that 
vast  constituency  which  honored  him  with  the  second  place  in  the  national 
Government — a  confidence  which  has  not  been  weakened  by  the  assaults 
which  have  been  made  on  his  integrity.  At  the  time  when  the  fiercest 
storms  beat  upon  his  good  name,  we  expressed  our  opinion  that  the  home 
community  which  first  sent  him  to  the  Congress  that  elevated  him  to  the 
dignity  of  its  presiding  officer  would  only  record  the  verdict  of  the  nation, 
if  they  should  reply  to  his  accusers  by  returning  him  as  their  Represen- 
tative at  Congress." 

Referring  to  the  strong  desire  to  do  this  manifested  by 
his  district — a  desire  not  by  any  means  confined  to  his  own 
party — the  Baltimore  paper  continued  : 

"  Mr.  Colfax  is  one  of  those  men  whom  we  cannot  spare  from  public 
life.  An  intelligent,  conscientious,  and  diligent  application  to  public 
affairs  entitles  him  to  a  position  which  he  should  accept  for  the  sake  of 
the  country.  And  there  is  the  other  consideration  that  it  would  be  the 
most  crushing  reply  to  the  slanders  which  have  been  heaped  upon  him. 
He  owes  it  to  himself  to  hold  out  his  hand  to  this  vindication  which  is 
offered  to  him.  We  earnestly  hope  that  he  will  permit  himself  to  be  re- 
turned by  his  district  by  the  largest  majority  it  has  ever  given." 

The  Tribune  was  unable  to  encourage  the  hope  that  he 
would  again  accept  office.  The  St.  Joseph  Valley  Register  of 
April  i7th,  1873,  said  : 

"  Mr.  Colfax  has  been  on  our  streets  every  day  for  the  past  six 
weeks,  in  our  office  nearly  every  day,  and  has  conversed  with  hundreds 
of  all  parties.  The  fact  that  the  Valparaiso  Messenger,  Goshen  Democrat, 
Ligonier  Banner,  Warsaw  Union — Democratic  papers  of  Northern  Indiana 
— have  urged  that  he  should  be  sent  back  to  Congress  from  his  old  district, 
has,  of  course,  caused  considerable  conversation  about  it.  But  we  have 
heard  him  reply  repeatedly  and  uniformly  that  he  did  not  want  any  office 
of  any  kind  ;  that  for  the  first  time  in  twenty  years  he  belonged  to  his 


OUT   OF   OFFICE.  451 

family  and  himself  instead  of  the  public,  and  enjoyed  the  rest  and  quiet 
it  brought  him  too  much  to  think  of  consenting  that  his  ownership 
should  be  changed." 

The  time  had  now  come  round  for  the  nomination 
(spring  of  1874).  The  Hon.  David  Turner,  of  Lake 
County  ;  Messrs.  Thomas  Jernegan,  of  La  Porte  County  ; 
Mark  L.  McClelland,  of  Porter  County  ;  C.  W.  McPherson, 
of  Carroll  County,  and  other  prominent  gentlemen  of  the 
district,  united  in  a  letter  urging  him  to  accept  the  nomi- 
nation. He  thanked  them  for  their  kindness,  but  declined 
to  accede  to  their  wishes.  He  said  in  part  : 

"  My  old  constituents  must  pardon  me  for  insisting  that  in  their  future 
Congressional  canvasses  I  must  be  counted  only  as  a  voter  and  under  no 
circumstances  as  a  candidate.  If  public  life  can  be  ranked  as  a  duty  not 
to  be  evaded,  I  have  certainly  performed  a  full  share  of  that  duty.  If, 
however,  as  is  generally  considered,  it  is  regarded  as  a  pleasure,  I  have 
certainly  had  of  that  pleasure  more  than  any  one  citizen  had  a  right  to 
claim  or  expect." 

If  he  had  yielded  to  the  general  wish  of  the  people  of 
Northern  Indiana  at  this  time,  he  would  have  been  returned 
to  Congress  without  opposition  from  the  Democracy,  for 
many  of  their  leaders  and  journals  were  committed  to  it, 
and  urged  it  as  strongly  as  the  Republicans. J  A  unanimous 

1.  "  His  nomination  to  the  office  would  be  equivalent  to  an  almost  unanimous  election, 
for  we  doubt  if  the  opposition  would  put  up  a  candidate  against  him."— Mishawaka 
Enterprise. 

"  Many  of  the  beet  citizens  of  all  parties  have  cherished  a  hope  that  Mr.  Colfax 
would  have  overcome  his  repugnance  to  public  life,  and  that  he  would  listen  to  the  request 
of  the  people  and  make  the  race  this  fall." — Valparaiso  Vidette. 

"With  many  others,  we  hoped,  for  the  harmony  and  success  of  the  party,  that  Mr. 
Colfax's  decision  would  have  been  otherwise,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  had  all 
along  declared  his  intention  of  permanently  retiring  from  public  life.11 — Michigan  City 
Enterprise. 

"  The  Register  is  in  possession  of  letters  from  influential  Democrats,  resident  in  all 
parts  of  the  district,  giving  assurance  that  if  Mr.  Colfax  could  be  made  the  Eepublican 
nominee,  no  nomination  would  be  made  by  the  opposition.''—^.  Joseph  Valley  Register. 

"We  have  no  doubt  he  would  receive  the  almost  unanimous  vote  of  his  district,  for 
those  who  have  the  most  intimate  knowledge  of  his  home  life  and  character  have  the 
most  perfect  faith  in  his  integrity." — Albany  Evening  Journal. 

"  We  knew  there  were  strong  influences  at  work  to  induce  Mr.  Colfax  to  become  a 
candidate,  but  we  had  no  idea  at  any  time  that  he  could  be  induced  to  consent.  No  man 
in  the  district  would  go  over  the  track  with  as  much  ease  as  he  would."—  Winamac  Ee- 
publican. 

"  It  is  believed  that  were  he  to  consent  to  becom  •  a  candidate,  he  would  be  elected 
without  opposition  even  from  the  Democrats."—  Chicago  Evening  Journal. 

"  This  will  disappoint  thousands  of  people  of  both  political  parties,  who  had  nursed 


45 2  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

election  was  virtually  tendered  him.  Almost  without  ex- 
ception his  personal  friends  desired  and  urged  him  to  ac- 
cept it.  "  In  most  things,"  he  said,  "  I  am  as  wax  in  the 
hands  of  my  friends;  in  this  I  am  adamant."  He  was 
speaking  every  second  day  to  thousands  of  people  at  all 
sorts  of  gatherings,  and  declining  four  out  of  five  of  his  in- 
vitations, because  he  could  not  be  in  five  places  at  once. 
Intending  to  visit  Colorado  this  summer,  he  wrote  Mr. 
Witter,  July  i6th  : 

41  Of  course  I  do  not  expect  to  make  any  political  speeches,  for, 
parodying  Greeley,  '  the  way  to  get  out  of  politics  is  to  get  out  of  poli- 
tics.' And  I  must  be  home  between  the  middle  and  last  of  September, 
for  I  have  a  number  of  engagements  to  speak  which  I  could  not  find  time 
for  this  summer.  They  insist  on  them.  I  have  declined  more  than  one 
hundred  invitations  a  month,  but  the  '  exceptions  '  I  have  had  to  make 
have  engrossed  all  my  time,  so  that  the  last  month  I  have  been  busy  as  in 
a  canvass.  My  crowds  have  been  larger  than  when  in  public  life."  1 

Among  these  declined  invitations  were  twenty  to  speak 
at  college  commencements.  The  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  of  Cleveland  were  obliged  to  postpone  their 

the  hope  that  Mr.  Colfax  might  once  more  be  their  Representative  in  Congress.  We  have 
received  scores  of  letters  from  all  over  the  district,  urging  that  South  Benders  should  use 
every  exertion  to  induce  him  to  run.  One  of  the  most  prominent  and  far-seeing  poli- 
ticians in  the  district  writes  us  :  '  If  Colfax  will  consent  to  a  candidacy  he  will  have  a  clear 
field— not  even  any  opposition  from  the  Democracy.1 "— South  Bend  Tribune. 

"  The  country  at  large  would  be  benefited  by  his  election,  and  it  would  be  glad  to  know 
that  his  objections  had  been  overcome,  and  that  his  services  were  once  more  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  public."—  Chicago  Inter-Ocean. 

"  The  letter  will  be  read  with  mingled  feelings  of  regret  and  pleasure— regret  that  the 
public  are  to  be  deprived  of  services  of  so  much  value,  and  our  district  of  the  honor  of 
again  being  represented  by  him  ;  pleasure  in  the  thought  that,  though  bitterly  abused  by 
politicians  of  all  parties  who  hated  him  for  his  pure  life  and  clear  record,  he  should  be 
the  first  choice  of  his  old  constituents,  in  spite  of  all  the  schemes  that  human  imagination 
could  invent  for  his  political  destruction."—  Crown  Point  Register. 

1.  From  the  South  Send  Tribune: 

"Mr.  Colfax  spoke  Thursday  afternoon  to  an  audience,  of  which  the  Logansport  Star 
said:  '  Thousands  of  people  thronged  the  streets  to  watch  the  procession,  which  numbered 
over  twenty-seven  hundred  persons  ;'  and  later  in  the  day,  at  the  laying  of  the  corner- 
stone of  the  Logansport  High  School,  to  another  great  crowd.  After  delivering  the 
anniversary  address  before  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  at  Cleveland,  he 
returned  home  yesterday  morning.  He  leaves  to-morrow  morning  to  fill  the  following 
appointments,  the  three  first  being  collegiate  :  Madison,  Wis.,  June  16th  ;  Olivet,  Mich., 
June  17th  ;  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  June  18th  ;  Stamford,  Conn.,  June  20th  and  21st ;  Eliza- 
beth, N.  J.,  June  22d  ;  Paterson,  N.  J.,  June  23d  ;  Lebanon,  Ind.,  June  26th  ;  St.  Joseph, 
Mich.,  July  1st ;  Big  Rapids,  Mich.,  July  2d  ;  East  Saginaw,  Mich.,  July  3d  ;  Ypsilanti, 
Mich.,  July  4th  ;  Paxton,  111.,  July  6th  ;  Mattoon,  111.,  July  7th  ;  Charles  City,  la.,  July 
9th ;  Davenport,  la.,  July  10th ;  North  Liberty,  Ind.,  July  18th ;  soon  after  which  he 
starts  with  his  family  for  the  Rocky  Mountains  of  Colorado." 


OU1\OF  OFFICE.  453 

anniversary  from  May  i4th  to  June  i2th,  the  only  day  he 
could  give  them.  Twenty  Colfaxes  could  not  have  met 
the  demands  on  the  one.  Such  was  the  answer  of  the 
people  to  the  attempt  to  crucify  this  man  on  the  Credit 
Mobilier  cross.  In  his  address  before  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  at  Cleveland,  he  said: 

"  The  sphere  of  the  members  of  this  body  is  daily  to  go  forth  to  re- 
lieve the  sick,  the  fallen,  and  the  destitute.  However  degraded  or  dis- 
honored they  may  be,  they  are  God's  creatures.  They  were  born  in  His 
image,  and  are  under  His  protection.  The  members  of  this  association 
find  their  highest  delight  in  taking  their  fallen  fellow-men  by  the  hand 
and  leading  them  back  to  virtue,  sobriety,  and  prosperity  here  on  earth, 
and  guiding  them  to  a  brilliant  hereafter.  Man  derives  his  greatest  hap- 
piness not  by  that  which  he  does  for  himself,  but  by  what  he  accomplishes 
for  others.  This  is  a  sad  world  at  best,  a  world  of  sorrows,  of  suffering, 
of  injustice,  and  falsification — men  stab  those  whom  they  hate  with 
the  stiletto  of  slander — and  it  is  for  the  followers  of  the  teachings  of  our 
Lord  to  improve  it,  to  make  it  more  as  Christ  would  have  it.  The  most 
precious  crown  of  fame  that  a  human  being  can  ask  is  to  kneel  at  the  Bar 
of  God  and  hear  the  beautiful  words,  '  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  ser- 
vant.' The  wealth  of  many  good  deeds  performed  is  more  valuable  than 
all  earthly  possessions.  It  is  the  most  priceless  heritage  you  can  leave 
to  your  children.  These  deeds  will  be  immortal." 

The  press  of  Colorado  greeted  him  cordially  on  his  ar- 
rival in  Denver.  "  We  welcome  him  to  Colorado  in  the 
sincerest  good  faith,"  said  the  Denver  Tribune.  "We  are 
proud  of  him  and  his  record.  Whether  in  office  or  out  of 
office,  we  have  always  found  him  the  same  honest,  open, 
fearless,  true-hearted  man."  Said  the  Denver  Times: 
"  Our  people  recognize  in  him  a  zealous,  conscientious 
friend.  They  welcome  him  again,  not  with  noisy  display 
and  hurrah,  but  with  quiet  satisfaction,  and  the  earnest 
wish  that  his  visit  may  prove  pleasant  and  beneficial/' 
The  Georgetown  Miner  said  :  "  We  acknowledge  the  pleas- 
ure of  a  call  from  plain  Schuyler  Colfax.  We  omit  the 
'  Honorable,'  for  it  cannot  add  to  the  lustre  of  true  man- 
hood or  heighten  the  esteem  which  a  nature  kindly  in 
sentiment,  true  in  instinct,  broad  in  scope,  generous  in 
sympathy,  and  genuine  in  all  its  moods  and  manifesta- 
tions, invariably  awakens."  The  prominent  men  of  Col- 


454  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

orado  joined  in  doing  him  honor  and  in  making  his  stay 
agreeable.  Receptions  and  social  entertainments  were 
given  him  in  the  larger  towns.  Excursions  to  points  of  in- 
terest on  the  new  railroads  were  arranged  for  his  pleasure. 
He  was  offered  "  a  very  beautiful  tract  of  land  as  a  present, 
if  he  would  make  Colorado  his  residence." 

Although  declining  to  accept  office,  he  retained  all  his 
interest  in  politics.  Returned  home,  and  presiding  on  the 
loth  of  October  at  a  political  meeting,  he  contended  that 
Republican  ascendency  was,  if  possible,  more  important 
to  the  nation  than  to  the  party  itself,  because  the  Republi- 
can Party  was  the  party  of  ideas  and  progress.  Review- 
ing the  twenty  years  through  .which  we  had  come  since  the 
era  of  political  intimidation,  outrage,  and  assassination 
opened  in  Kansas  Territory,  he  said  he  thought  it  was  time 
for  that  era  to  close,  and  for  every  citizen,  North  and 
South,  to  be  protected  in  his  rights. 

On  the  same  day  he  wrote  as  follows  to  Mr.  John  T. 
Drew  : 

"  Won't  you  write  me  a  long  letter,  and  tell  me  what  you  have  been 
doing  through  all  this  long  interval,  how  your  health  is,  etc.?  I  have  been 
overwhelmed  with  speaking  invitations  of  all  kinds,  political,  educational, 
collegiate,  agricultural,  Odd  Fellowship,  and  Temperance  ;  and  though  I 
have  declined  one  hundred  per  month,  the  exceptions  have  kept  me  talk- 
ing a  good  deal  from  New  England  to  beyond  the  Mississippi.  I  had  a 
splendid  reception  [public,  with  music],  and  a  large  audience  at  Spring- 
field, Mass.,  Bowles's  town — he  was  away  at  the  time — and  also  at  New 
Haven  and  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  and  have  just  returned  from  a  two 
months'  ramble  with  my  family  over  the  mountains  and  plains  of  Col- 
orado, whither  I  went  to  get  rid  of  speaking,  and  to  enjoy  their  scenery 
and  invigorating  atmosphere.  I  declined  nearly  all  the  invitations  re- 
ceived there,  but  spoke  four  times  to  large  crowds.  Since  my  return 
home  I  had  to  decline  an  urgent  invitation  from  the  Montreal  Odd  Fel- 
lows—it is  too  far  off,  and  didn't  have  the  time.  But  I  wanted  to  go. 

"  I  have  not  made  any  political  speeches  except  one  to  my  townsmen 
here  since  my  return  home.  I  send  you  a  copy  of  it,  as  you  may  not 
otherwise  see  it.  Our  canvass  is  all  mixed  up  in  the  State,  although 
looking  better  than  a  month  ago.  My  old  constituents  insisted  on  my 
running  again  for  Congress,  and  offered  to  nominate  me  unanimously  (as 
all  the  Republican  aspirants  proffered  to  yield  in  my  favor),  and  to  elect 
me  by  thousands,  as  hundreds  of  Democrats  were  openly  for  me.  But 
as  I  had  been  in  Congress  eighteen  years,  I  had  no  ambition  for  it,  and 


OUT   OF   OFFICE.  455 

insisted  that  I  must  be  excused.  I  have  enjoyed  the  independence  and 
absence  of  responsibility  for  public  affairs  the  last  year  hugely.  And  I 
shall  never  forget  the  obligations  of  gratitude  I  owe  to  you  for  your  will- 
ing testimony,  so  bravely  given.  Do  let  me  hear  from  you,  and  believe 
me  very  truly  yours. 

"  SCHUYLER  COLFAX." 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  A.  N.  Eddy,  son  of  his  friend,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Eddy,  written  when  the  latter  died,  in  October, 
1874,  Mr.  Colfax  says  : 

"  You  say  truly  that  no  man  ever  had  a  warmer,  truer  friend  than 
your  father  was  to  me.  How  sadly  I  realize  this  I  cannot  adequately  ex- 
press. His  was  a  life-long  friendship,  too,  without  variableness  or 
shadow  of  turning.  It  surrounded  me  and  encompassed  me  and  inspired 
me  all  through  my  public  life.  I  turned  to  it  at  every  hour  of  anxiety  and 
trial,  as  one  turns  to  the  heart  of  the  woman  who  loves  him,  and  I  never 
turned  to  it  in  vain.  I  could  always  drink  deeply  there  of  affectionate 
regard,  of  true-hearted  devotion,  of  wisest  counsel.  All  who  are  near 
and  dear  to  me  know  that  I  valued  that  friendship  to  its  full  worth.  And 
it  saddens  me  now  inexpressibly,  as  if  I  were  of  his  kith  and  kin,  that  I 
am  never  to  see  him  again,  never  to  feel  the  warm  grasp  of  his  hand  and 
see  in  his  face  and  hear  in  his  words  the  cheery  welcome  he  always  gave 
me.  But  his  is  a  better,  happier  land  than  ours.  Death  is  sad,  indeed  ; 
but  when  we  realize  that  only  through  it  can  we  see  God,  our  sorrow 
should  be  for  the  stricken  ones,  not  for  the  victorious  Christian  who  has 
gone  before." 

This  fall  the  Indianapolis  Real  Estate  Exchange  first 
occupied  their  new  hall  in  the  Martindale  Block.  The  ex- 
Vice-President  delivered  the  inaugural  address.  "  He 
was  received,"  said  the  Indiana  State  Journal,  "with  an 
honest,  hearty  welcome  by  a  crowded  assemblage  of  the 
leading  business  men  of  the  city."  It  was  a  felicitous 
occasion,  set  off  with  a  striking  array  of  figures,  illustrating 
the  growth  and  commercial  prosperity  of  the  city.  The 
orator  contributed  to  its  success  by  contrasting  the  Indi- 
anapolis of  his  first  recollection  with  the  Indianapolis  of 
the  occasion.  He  exhibited  Governor  Ray's  railroad  map 
of  a  former  day — the  butt  of  his  contemporaries — now  ex- 
actly realized  by  railroads  in  successful  operation. 

A  monument  to  Lincoln  was  unveiled  at  the  capital  of 
Illinois  in  this  month  of  October  (1874).  Called  out  of 
the  audience,  the  ex-Vice-President  spoke  as  follows  : 


SGHUYLER  COLFAX. 

"  MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  :  I  came  hither  to-day  from 
my  Indiana  home,  to  participate  with  you  in  these  sadly  interesting  exer- 
cises, with  the  understanding  that  I  was  not  to  speak  ;  but  when  you  call  on 
me  so  earnestly  at  the  close  of  these  ceremonies,  so  honorable  to  you  and 
honorable  to  the  country  as  well,  I  cannot  forbear  occupying  a  few  mo- 
ments in  bearing  testimony  to  the  life,  to  the  character,  to  the  services, 
and  to  the  undying  fame  of  him  to  whom  the  nation  and  the  world  owe 
so  much. 

"  Cruelly  maligned  and  wickedly  vilified  as  he  was  while  living — 
compared  even  to  Nero  and  Caligula  and  the  other  tyrants  whose  dark 
deeds  blacken  the  pages  of  history — yet  when  the  bullet  of  the  assassin 
hurried  him  to  the  grave,  the  whole  world  stood  as  mourners  at  his  tomb. 
Without  a  single  dissenting  voice,  history  now  declares  upon  its  adaman- 
tine tablets  that  in  ancient,  as  in  modern  times,  no  ruler  ever  wielded 
potver  more  leniently  than  Abraham  Lincoln.  No  man  who  held  in  his 
hand  the  keys  of  life  and  death  ever  pardoned  so  generously  and  so  merci- 
fully. Unselfish,  and  more  than  unselfish — self -forgetful— he  was  of  all 
men  I  ever  knew  in  public  or  private  life,  large-hearted,  even-tempered, 
sympathetic,  free  from  malice,  and  absolutely  incapable  of  revenge. 

"  But  while  I  have  been  listening  with  you  to-day  to  these  eloquent 
tributes  to  his  life  and  services,  the  sentiment  of  that  greatest  of  Ameri- 
can speeches — delivered  by  Abraham  Lincoln  himself  at  the  Gettysburg 
Cemetery — has  been  uppermost  in  my  mind.  May  I  not  paraphrase  his 
own  words,  and  say,  We  cannot  dedicate  or  sanctify  or  hallow  this 
ground.  He  whose  remains  slumber  here  till  the  resurrection  morn  has, 
by  his  services  to  this  nation,  consecrated  it  far  above  our  power  to  add 
or  detract.  The  world  will  little  note  nor  long  remember  what  we  say 
here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what  he  did  for  us.  Let  us  rather  be  dedi- 
cated here  to  the  cause  for  which  he  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devo- 
tion—that we  may  here  highly  resolve  that  he  shall  not  have  died  in  vain  ; 
but  that  our  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  peo- 
ple shall  become  in  our  hands  the  joy,  as  it  is  the  hope,  of  every  lover  of 
liberty  throughout  the  world. 

"  And  let  all  our  young  men  who  are  stepping  on  the  threshold  of 
manhood  find  inspiration  in  the  life  and  deeds  of  one  who,  though  born 
in  the  humblest  walks  of  life,  by  his  own  merit,  by  his  own  industry,  by 
his  own  unexceptionable  habits,  by  his  own  devotedness  to  patriotism,  and 
his  elevating  principles,  raised  himself  to  the  highest  position  in  the  civil- 
ized world  ;  and  then,  when  death  came  at  last,  '  from  the  top  of  Fame's 
ladder  stepped  to  the  skies.'  " 

This  speech  fitly  closed  the  ceremonies.  After  the  pro- 
longed applause  subsided,  ex-Governor  Palmer,  President 
of  the  day,  said  :  "  Now,  not  another  word  !  Let  us  all 
rise  and  close  by  singing  the  Doxology." 


OUT   OF   OFFICE.  457 

Mr.  Colfax  was  besought  to  return  to  Springfield,  and 
treat  the  subject  more  at  length.  Mrs.  Colfax  urged  him 
to  do  so,  because  it  was  in  his  line,  would  give  him  occupa- 
tion, and  he  would  enjoy  it.  He  recast  his  tribute  of  1865 
into  a  lecture,  which  he  was  at  once  overwhelmed  with  in- 
vitations to  deliver.  It  was  thus  that  he  was  led  to  the 
adoption  of  lecturing  as  a  profession.  He  subsequently 
rewrote  and  occasionally  delivered  his  Overland  lecture, 
laid  by  in  1867  ;  but  the  Lincoln  lecture  was  his  main  reli- 
ance. With  the  lecturing  he  continued  those  addresses  on 
miscellaneous  topics  and  occasions  which  began  with  his 
entrance  into  active  life,  and  had  never  been  wholly  sus- 
pended. Senator  Anthony  wrote  him  in  January,  1875  : 

"  MY  DEAR  COLFAX  :  I  hear  of  you  not  '  a  wanderer  in  many  lands,' 
but  in  all  parts  of  our  own  land,  everywhere  drawing  great  crowds  of 
admiring  listeners  and  everywhere  proving  that  your  great  popularity  is 
undiminished.  I  have  often  thought  in  these  troublous  times  what  might 
have  been  the  effect  if  you  had  carried  out  your  intention  of  taking  charge 
of  the  New  York  Tribune,  making  that  great  power  a  tower  of  strength  to 
the  Republicans  instead  of  a  stronghold  of  the  Democracy.  I  look  upon 
the  defeat  of  [Zachary]  Chandler  as  a  blow  at  the  Administration  and  at 
the  party.  His  strong  will  and  aggressive  temper  made  him  a  represen- 
tative man.  He  bears  it  well.  Says  that  he  was  beaten  by  '  sixty  odd 
Copperheads,  three  soreheads,  and  three  wooden  heads  ' — that  everything 
was  done  that  could  be  done,  but  that  there  is  no  insurance  against  lying  ; 
and  that  men  voted  against  him  who,  as  a  condition  of  their  election, 
pledged  themselves  to  support  him. 

"  Our  friends  here  regard  the  situation  as  eminently  grave,  yet  by  no 
means  hopeless.  The  Republicans  are  not  so  much  depressed  nor  the 
Democrats  so  exultant  as  I  expected.  The  wisest  Democrats  see  plainly 
the  difficulties  before  them,  and  the  trouble  that  they  will  have  to  hold 
the  North,  with  sixty  rebel  officers  howling  in  the  House  and  their  friends 
killing  negroes  in  the  South.  It  is  impossible  to  predict  what  our  friends 
will  do  on  Louisiana  or  on  the  transportation  question.  I  think  that  Col- 
orado will  be  likely  to  get  in — New  Mexico  more  doubtful.  Not  much  is 
said  about  the  taxes.  But  I  suppose  that  [a  tax  on]  tea  and  coffee  and  the 
restoration  of  the  ten  per  cent  that  was  taken  off  the  imports  are  more 
likely  to  be  adopted  than  an  addition  to  the  tax  on  whisky." 

To  Mr.  Henry  Wetherbee,  of  San  Francisco,  Mr.  Colfax 
wrote  in  May,  1875  : 

"  I  have  been  enjoying  the  most  delightful  winter  and  spring  I  have 
realized  for  twenty  years,  and  have  taken  a  new  lease  of  life.  I  can  see 


458  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

now  the  last  three  years  I  was  Vice-President  I  was  on  the  down-grade. 
I  was  troubled  with  insomnia,  was  haggard  and  careworn,  and  a  year 
more  would  have  taken  me  to  the  cemetery.  With  my  out-of-door  life, 
I  have  the  appetite  and  sleep  of  a  laborer.  You  never  saw  one  more 
completely  cured  of  all  desire  for  public  life,  or  even  willingness  to  accept 
its  honors  with  its  trials.  I  refused  to  listen  to  the  appeal  of  my  old 
constituents  who  wished  me  to  return  to  Congress,  and  decline  all  political 
discussion,  telling  every  one  that  I  vote  the  straight  Republican  ticket, 
but  give  no  explanations  and  ask  no  questions.  The  outlook  ahead  isn't 
as  pleasant  and  serene  politically  as  I  could  desire,  but  all  our  reverses 
and  imminent  dangers  have  arisen  from  the  lack  for  the  last  two  years  of 
united  and  harmonious  and  consequent  powerful  political  leadership  at 
Washington.  With  the  shepherds  divided  and  antagonizing,  what  won- 
der that  the  sheep  have  gone  astray  ?  In  what  road  were  they  certain  they 
should  walk,  when  their  leaders  could  not  or  would  not  agree  as  to  the  true 
pathway  ?  Hence  they  stray  into  pitfalls. 

"  I  have  been  literally  overwhelmed  with  speaking  invitations — have 
a  seven-thousand-dollar  block  in  our  city  built  out  of  proceeds  of  one 
year's  talking  to  colleges,  fairs,  Odd  Fellows'  anniversaries,  etc.,  and  for 
the  past  six  months  far  more  than  this  for  lecturing,  with  a  most  delight- 
ful round  of  dinner  parties  and  hearty  welcomes  all  over.  Besides  all 
this,  the  freedom  from  official  care  and  responsibility  makes  my  spirits 
buoyant  and  elastic  as  my  health  is  firmer  and  more  robust  than  for  many 
years." 

He  wrote  Senator  Anthony  later  in  the  same  month  : 

"  Wife  and  I  have  just  returned  from  a  delightful  visit  of  a  week  in  Can- 
ada—speaking at  Toronto,  Hamilton,  Whitby,  and  Niagara— flags  of  both 
nations  intertwined  everywhere,  balls,  banquets,  receptions,  speeches, 
carriages,  music,  and  sight-seeing,  till  we  were  almost  killed  with  kind- 
ness. One  Tory  paper  tried  to  stem  the  tide,  but  only  intensified  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  demonstrations.  At  the  palatial  residence  of  Mr.  Perry, 
of  Whitby,  on  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Ontario,  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
were  unfurled  for  the  first  time  in  Mr.  Perry's  life,  and  the  crowd,  they 
said,  was  twice  as  large  as  when  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  there.  Repre- 
sentatives were  present  from  so  far  off  as  Windsor,  two  hundred  miles 
west,  and  Montreal,  three  hundred  miles  east,  and  a  steamer  full  across 
the  lake  from  Rochester.  At  Toronto  a  magnificent  collation  followed 
the  speaking,  and  we  could  not  get  away  from  it  and  our  enthusiastic 
friends  until  two,  although  we  had  to  rise  at  half-past  five  to  go  to  Hamil- 
ton and  be  similarly  banqueted  there,  under  the  flags  of  both  nations,  from 
nine  to  eleven  in  the  morning,  when  we  got  off  to  the  Falls,  where  I  only 
had  to  speak  once  at  night  in  a  crowded  hall,  instead  of  three  times  a  day, 
as  before.  I  enclose  you  some  slips,  to  give  you  some  idea  of  it.  They 
seemed  to  want  to  make  it  international. 


OUT   OF   OFFICE.  459 

"  I  have  had  the  jolliest  and  most  independent  and  most  money-mak- 
ing winter  of  my  life  ;  have  had  over  six  hundred  invitations,  accepted 
about  one  fifth — at  just  the  points  I  wanted  to  visit — have  had  larger  audi- 
ences and  more  general  and  hearty  welcome  than  when  in  public  life,  and 
have  received  ten  thousand  dollars  besides.  My  engagements  last  to 
June  2ist,  though  all  the  other  lecturers  are  out  of  the  field,  and  I  com- 
mence in  October  again,  having  more  invitations  now  than  would  fill 
every  night  next  winter,  if  I  accepted  them.  But  '  I  go  a-visiting  *  more 
than  a-lecturing. 

"  I  note  what  the  papers  say  of  your  opinion  as  to  Southern  affairs 
and  I  agree  exactly,  as  we  always  did.  Grant  has  been  a  better  Repub- 
lican the  last  two  years  than  Congress  (though  I  am  not  for  third  term). 
If  we  had  a  political  weather  '  Prob.,'  I  should  advise  him  to  say,  '  Cau- 
tionary signals — Look  out  for  squalls  !  '  I  was  disappointed  in  not  seeing 
you  while  I  was  at  Washington.  But  I  knew  there  was  a  good  reason 
for  it — there  was  a  caucus  that  night.  I  had  a  pleasant  talk  of  half  an 
hour  with  the  President.  He  said  he  would  invite  thirty  old  friends  to 
meet  me  at  dinner  next  day  if  I  would  stay.  I  told  him  I  could  not  afford 
it,  as  it  would  cost  me  a  hundred  dollars  to  stop  over  a  day  (my  lecture 
fee),  and  he  laughed  heartily  at  the  idea." 

Press  notices  of  the  Lincoln  lecture  often  ran  into 
notices  of  the  lecturer.  "  Throughout  the  changes  of  a 
wonderfully  brilliant  and  distinguished  career,"  said  the 
Alton  (111.)  Telegraph  in  January,  1875,  "  not  surpassed  in 
the  history  of  American  politics,  his  genial  courtesy  and 
sterling  integrity  remained  unchanged.  The  people  believe 
in  and  trust  his  honesty,  purity,  and  patriotism,  notwith- 
standing the  slurs  and  slanders  which  envy  and  malice 
have  cast  upon  him."  "  I  have  the  honor  and  pleasure," 
said  Mr.  C.  M.  Nichols,  of  the  Springfield  (O.)  Republic,  "  of 
presenting  to  you  to-night  an  eminent  Christian  gentleman 
— a  man  of  blameless  life  and  of  stainless  name — the  Hon. 
Schuyler  Colfax,  of  Indiana."  "  Nor  is  it  detracting  from 
the  merit  of  the  dead  statesman  and  patriot  to  declare  that 
his  name  receives  fresh  lustre  in  its  commemoration  by  his 
justly  distinguished  eulogist/'  said  the  Chicago  Inter-Ocean. 
The  St.  Louis  Democrat  said  :  "  The  lecture  was  a  most  re- 
markable one,  worthy  of  the  fame  of  the  man  who  gave  it, 
and  of  his  fame  to  whose  memory  it  was  devoted." 
"  Schuyler  Colfax  can  be  elected  Governor  of  Indiana  by 
twenty  thousand  majority,"  said  the  Rockville  Republican; 


460  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

and  anxiously  inquired,  "  Will  the  Republicans  nominate 
him  ?"  "  They  may/'*  replied  the  South  Bend  Tribune^ 
"  but  he  will  not  accept." 

He  spent  August  with  his  wife  at  Martha's  Vineyard 
and  Newport.  Early  in  September  he  addressed  an  audi- 
ence of  eight  thousand  on  Odd  Fellowship  at  Three  Rivers, 
Mich.  This  multitude  was  treated  to  a  free  dinner.  In 
the  evening  he  delivered  his  lecture  on  Lincoln  in  a  church. 
The  day,  according  to  a  press  dispatch,  "  was  a  continu- 
ous ovation  of  hand-shaking  and  kind  words  for  him,"  and 
this  was  a  typical  day.  November  found  him  at  Spring- 
field, Mass.  The  Republican  said  : 

"  Schuyler  Colfax,  in  his  lecture  on  Abraham  Lincoln  last  night  at  the 
City  Hall,  met  a  notably  cordial  welcome.  Springfield  gave  him  a  sub- 
stantial, responsive  audience,  noticeable  for  its  diversified,  respectable 
character.  There  were  people  seldom  seen  on  such  occasions,  though 
hardly  as  many  black  faces  as  might  have  been  expected.  The  lecture 
was,  of  course,  in  the  highest  degree,  an  intimate,  appreciative  review, 
full  of  intelligent  discernment  of  the  life,  character,  and  labors  of  the 
late  President  Lincoln,  brimming  over  with  those  famous  stories.  Many 
people  pressed  forward  to  greet  Mr.  Colfax  after  his  talk,  and  the  succeed- 
ing Odd  Fellows'  reception  at  their  hall  was  an  enthusiastic  compliment 
to  their  distinguished  brother,  arid  the  rooms  were  completely  filled  with 
the  members  of  the  Order  and  their  invited  friends.  After  being  gener- 
ally introduced  to  the  audience  by  Mr.  T.  Chubbuck,  Mr.  Colfax  spoke 
at  length  upon  the  general  principles  and  duties  of  the  Order,  its  growth 
and  advantages,  enlivening  his  remarks  by  pleasant  anecdote  and  inci- 
dent ;  applause  and  good  feeling  were  abundant,  and  personal  introduc- 
tion and  conversation  followed  for  an  hour." 

On  the  occasion  of  Henry  Wilson's  death,  Colfax,  who 
was  then  at  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  prefaced  his  lecture  with  the 
following  tribute  : 

"  I  need  hardly  say  to  you  how  sincerely  I  sorrow  with  you  and  the 
people  of  the  United  States  over  the  death  of  Vice-President  Wilson. 
Born  like  the  distinguished  citizen  of  whom  I  am  about  to  speak  to-night, 
in  obscurity  and  poverty,  he  rose  like  him,  step  by  step,  by  his  own 
energy,  industry,  and  fidelity  to  principle  and  duty.  Without  scholastic 
culture,  and  without  the  aid  of  wealthy  or  influential  relatives,  he  passed 
through  nearly  every  grade  of  official  distinction  till  he  attained  the  sec- 
ond office  in  the  gift  of  the  people.  Always  a  willing  worker,  always 
laboring  with  heart  and  soul,  with  tongue  and  pen,  and  with  an  energy 


OUT  X)F   OFFICE.  461 

that  knew  neither  rest  nor  relaxation,  for  principles  he  so  thoroughly 
believed  in,  he  died  at  last  from  overwork  at  his  post  of  duty.  And  mill- 
ions of  our  people,  for  years  to  come,  will  mourn  the  loss  of  so  faithful 
a  public  servant,  so  unselfish  a  patriot,  and  so  true-hearted  a  citizen  as 
Henry  Wilson." 

Every  word  of  this  compact  eulogy  might  at  his  death 
have  been  spoken  with  appropriateness  of  him  who  ut- 
tered it. 

The  Lincoln  lecture  grew  in  popularity.  "  Mr.  Colfax 
had  a  very  large  and  enthusiastic  audience,"  said  the  Bos- 
ton Post  in  December,  "  and  the  platform  was  occupied  by 
many  distinguished  citizens.  Mr.  Colfax  spoke  infor- 
mally, as  though  familiar  with  his  subject  ;  and  though  his 
voice  was  hoarse  and  husky  kept  his  audience  in  rapt  at- 
tention to  the  end  of  the  lecture."  A  Lecture  Bureau 
made  him  tempting  offers  to  deliver  the  lecture  one  hun- 
dred times  in  the  East,  while  requests  for  it  from  the  West 
steadily  increased  in  frequency.  Within  one  hundred  and 
forty  days  of  its  preparation  he  delivered  it  ninety-four 
times  in  thirteen  States,  passing  meanwhile  twenty  times 
from  the  Mississippi  Valley  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  or 
vice  versa.  Writing  to  Mr.  Wetherbee  in  December,  1876, 
he  says  :  "  I  have  lost  thirty  thousand  dollars  in  the  shrink- 
age of  values,  break-down  of  investments,  etc.,  in  the  past 
three  years,  although  my  investments  were  scattered  some 
five  thousand  dollars  in  a  place.  This  was  almost  half  of 
what  I  was  worth.  By  what  seems  to  me  a  lucky  accident, 
I  have  made  up  my  losses  by  lecturing,  including  what  I 
shall  realize  this  season."  In  1878  he  wrote  his  wife's 
sister  :  "  I  am  really  very  tired  of  it,  and  nothing  but  its 
revenue  keeps  me  from  quitting  it,  save  in  exceptional 
cases."  In  1880  he  wrote  the  author  :  "I  have  quit 
working  at  the  high  pressure  speed  of  the  last  few  years  ; 
limit  myself  except  in  January,  the  high-tide  of  the  lecture 
season,  to  two  or  three  lectures  a  week  ;  and  hence  am  at 
home  about  three  days  per  week  instead  of  Sundays  only." 

The  next  year,  the  Lincoln  lecture  having  been  modi- 
fied to  include  Garfield,  he  wrote  :  "  Am  awfully  busy  this 
season — a  perfect  flood  of  invitations  to  lecture — season 


462  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

nearly  full  now  [October  3oth],  lecturing  four  times  a 
week."  In  1882  :  "  I  had  a  delightful  week  in  Kansas  ; 
spoke  to  several  thousands  at  a  fair,  and  had  a  banquet 
given  me  by  the  Indianians  around  there,  attended  by  six 
hundred,  some  coming  thirty  miles  to  attend."  In  April, 
1883  :  "  I  am  still  wandering  over  the  country,  devastating 
it  with  lectures,  but  the  season  is  almost  ended.  Wife  asks 
me  sometimes,  *  When  does  it  end,  really  ? '  But  I  tell  her 
there  are  always  a  few  more  ahead.  How  can  you  refuse 
when  she  wants  a  Worth  dress,  and  the  associations  shake 
their  money  at  you,  and  urge  you  to  come  ?"  In  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Eddy,  of  Chicago,  written  December  5th,  1884,  he 
says  : 

"  Publishers  have  urged  me  to  undertake  some  kind  of  a  work,  which 
you  also  so  kindly  suggest.  But  I  lack  the  taste  and  the  ambition.  I 
have  even  declined  very  lucrative  offers  for  one  hundred  nights  of  a  lect- 
ure on  '  My  Twenty  Years  in  Congress,'  for  many  reasons,  a  few  of 
which  are  that  I  am  drawing  my  lecture  absences  from  my  family  into  a 
narrower  compass  (but  two  or  three  per  week,  so  as  to  spend  half  the 
week  besides  Sundays,  as  of  old,  with  my  wife)  ;  that  it  would  look  ego- 
tistical to  me,  if  it  did  not  to  others  ;  that  it  would  seem  like  copying  the 
idea  struck  out  by  another  ;  and  that  I  have  made  so  much  money  lect- 
uring (over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars),  I  really  don't  care  for  any 
more,  strange  as  that  may  seem.1  But  my  business  investments  since  I 
have  been  in  private  life  have  generally  turned  out  well  besides.  My 
present  life  is  a  very  enjoyable  one.  It  is  wonderful  to  me  how  my  lect- 
ure wears,  as  I  supposed  it  would  long  ago  have  been  exhausted.  But 
the  demand  still  continues,  far  greater  than  I  am  willing  (and  able)  to 
supply.  It  prevents  me  from  rusting  out,  gives  me  plenty  of  travel  and 
adventure,  a  series  of  delightful  visits  over  the  country,  tea-parties  with 
old  Congressional  and  political  friends,  and  as  here  [Geneseo,  N.  Y.],  I 
am  compelled  to  return  a  second  time  to  the  same  place.  At  Huntington, 
Pa.,  last  week,  I  had  the  largest  lecture  audience  ever  known  there,  and 
found  a  table  full  of  old  friends  I  had  never  met  before.  But  I  am  not  a 
book-maker,  have  no  taste  for  it,  and  could  not  work  up  any  such  thing 
con  amore.  I  am  under  engagement  to  furnish  the  Boston  Congregation* 
alist  with  articles,  at  fifty  dollars  each,  but  the  spirit  doesn't  move  me  to 
write  half  a  dozen  a  year.  I  enclose  you  the  last  one.  I  fear  my  roving, 
wandering  life  has  made  me  lazy  !" 

1.  The  appraised  value  of  his  estate,  after  his  death,  was  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars. 


OUT   OF   OFFICE.  463 

Like  his  politics,  his  lecturing  was  always  to  be  laid 
down  that  he  might  enjoy  rest  and  quiet  with  his  family 
at  home.  But  "  quiet  to  quick  bosoms  is  a  hell."  Partly 
from  choice,  partly  from  necessity,  lecturing  was  not 
abandoned.  He  died  in  the  act.  Managing  for  himself 
involved  a  heavy  correspondence.  He  entered  the  minutes 
of  it  all  for  twelve  years  on  about  thirty  sheets  of  note- 
paper,  which  he  carried  with  him.  It  is  so  closely  written 
and  so  much  interlined,  and  he  used  so  many  signs  known 
only  to  himself,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  decipher  it. 
But  part  of  it  is  a  summary,  recording  the  appointments 
filled,  when,  where,  and  what  the  occasion.  May  ist,  1883, 
he  summed  up  the  lectures  delivered  as  follows  :  "  Illinois, 
137;  New  York,  114;  Iowa,  106  ;  Michigan,  103;  Indi- 
ana, 92;  Ohio,  90;  Pennsylvania,  71;  Wisconsin,  39; 
Massachusetts,  22  ;  Kansas,  22  ;  Missouri,  18  ;  Minnesota, 
14  ;  Nebraska,  12  ;  Colorado,  8  ;  Connecticut,  5  ;  Ver- 
mont, 5  ;  Rhode  Island,  5  ;  Canada,  4  ;  Maine,  3  ;  Mary- 
land, 3  ;  West  Virginia,  3  ;  District  of  Columbia,  2  ;  Cali- 
fornia, 2  ;  New  Hampshire,  2  ;  Virginia,  i  ;  Delaware,  i  ; 
Utah,  i  ;  Kentucky,  i  ;  Dakota,  i  ; — thirty  States  and  Ter- 
ritories—total, 910."  Afterward,  as  near  as  can  be  made 
out,  he  lectured  just  one  hundred  times. 

His  addresses  at  Odd  Fellows'  anniversaries  and  festi- 
vals ;  at  foundations,  dedications,  college  commencements, 
temperance,  day  and  Sunday-school  gatherings,  soldiers' 
reunions,  political  meetings,  farmers'  and  mechanics'  fairs, 
in  aid  of  churches  and  charities,  in  response  to  serenades, 
and  his  4th  of  July  orations,  exclusive  of  his  lectures 
proper,  numbered  full  three  hundred  in  these  twelve  years. 
And  these  figures  give  but  a  faint  idea  of  the  work  in- 
volved. One  must  take  the  list  and  a  map,  and  trace  him 
over  his  whole  field,  at  least  once  every  month  of  the  lect- 
ure seasons.  Each  one  of  the  thirteen  hundred  lectures 
and  addresses  represents,  perhaps,  three  hundred  miles  of 
travel.  He  always  made  it  a  point  to  spend  the  Sabbath 
at  home  ;  he  never  missed  an  appointment  unless  his  train 
was  delayed  ;  he  never  met  with  an  accident  in  his  hun- 


464  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

dreds  of  thousands  of  miles  of  lecture  travelling.     Follow- 
ing are  the  last  four  entries  on  his  programme  : 

"  Chicago,  111.,  Thursday,  January  8th,  1885  ;  Business  College 40 

"  Rock  Rapids,  la.,  Tuesday,  January  I3th,  1885  ;  Mr.  H.  B.  Pierce.  75 
"  Olivet,  Mich.,  Monday,  January  19^,1885  ;  G.A.R.,  W.  A.  Barnes.  60 
"  Ithaca,  Mich.,  Tuesday,  January  2oth,  1885  ;  W.  R.  Wright 60' 

The  last  three  he  did  not  live  to  fill. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

OUT   OF   OFFICE  (CONTINUED). 
1873-1885. 

DECLINES  TO  RUN  FOR  CONGRESS  IN  1876. — RECEPTION  OF  THE  GRAND 
LODGE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  AT  INDIANAPOLIS.  —  CONTESTED 
PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION. — THE  WHITE  MEN  OF  THE  NORTH  AC- 
CEPT THE  BADGE  OF  INFERIORITY. — DEMANDS  THE  REMONETIZATION 
OF  SILVER. — ALWAYS  AGAINST  POLYGAMY. — PRISON  LABOR. — Six 
WEEKS'  CANVASS  IN  1880.  —  INDIANA  WINS  THE  PRESIDENTIAL 
BATTLE. — DECLINES  TO  RUN  FOR  UNITED  STATES  SENATOR. — MURDER 
OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. — RECEPTION  BY  THE  Two  HOUSES  OF  THE 
INDIANA  LEGISLATURE. — DECLINES  TO  RUN  FOR  CONGRESS  in  1882. 
— CAUSES  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  REVERSES. — TRIBUTE  TO  SENATOR 
MORTON. — UNIVERSAL  CENSOR. — IN  THE  FAR  NORTH-WEST. — IN 
COLORADO,  FAMILY  REUNION.  —  LAST  POLITICAL  SPEECH.  —  ON 
ELAINE'S  DEFEAT.— IN  NEW  YORK.— His  DEATH. 

THE  Centennial  year  was  also  the  Presidential  year. 
The  Republican  Party,  through  defection  in  the  North, 
had  been  substantially  suppressed  in  the  South.  Under 
the  lash  of  the  "  Liberal  "  Republican  press,  the  lower 
House  of  the  Forty-third  Congress  had  refused  to  sustain 
the  Administration  in  protecting  the  Southern  loyalists. 
President  Grant  had  therefore  been  unable  to  do  more 
than  keep  the  peace  while  the  reactionary  party  effected 
a  counter-revolution  in  the  South.  The  Forty-fourth  Con- 
gress met  in  December,  1875.  The  House  of  Representa- 
tives elected  a  Democratic  Speaker  for  the  first  time  in 
twenty  years.  Mr.  Elaine  infused  a  little  spirit  into  his 
moribund  party  by  his  attack  on  the  proposition  to  am- 
nesty the  ex-rebels,  inclusive  of  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis,  yet 
under  the  ban  of  political  disability.  But  the  outlook  for 
the  Republicans  was  not  brilliant.  Indiana  held  her  elec- 
tion in  October,  a  month  in  advance  of  the  general  eleo 


466  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

tion.  Indiana  was  always  a  close  and  doubtful  State. 
Consequently,  there  was  a  stronger  desire  than  usual  to 
get  the  ex-Vice-President  into  the  canvass.  Mr.  Friedly, 
Chairman  of  the  State  Republican  Committee,  wrote  him  : 
"  Your  abilities  as  an  able  and  powerful  speaker  are  well 
known  to  our  people,  and  your  presence  among  us  will  do 
us  great  good.  Let  me  make  a  series  of  appointments  for 
you  at  once."  Judge  Turner  and  other  gentlemen  of 
Lake  County  solicited  him  by  letter  to  again  run  for  Con- 
gress. He  replied  :  "  Thanks  to  the  good  friends  of  your 
noble  county  for  their  good  wishes,  but  if  a  unanimous 
election  to  Congress  were  tendered  me  I  could  not  accept 
it."  Upon  this  the  South  Bend  Tribune  said  :  "  We  hope 
this  will  suffice  as  an  answer  to  the  scores  of  friends  of  Mr. 
Colfax  all  over  the  district  who  are  urging  his  intimate 
friends  here  to  use  every  argument  to  induce  him  to  run. 
This  desire  is  not  confined  to  his  old  district  or  to  his  State. 
Newspapers  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  have  ex- 
pressed the  wish  that  he  might  be  induced  to  enter  the 
Presidential  canvass." 

It  was  in  May  of  this  year  that  the  town  of  Schuyler 
and  the  county  of  Colfax  in  the  State  of  Nebraska  were 
named  after  Schuyler  Colfax.  The  Omaha  Bee  of  about 
May  2oth  said  :  "  He  lectured  there  to  an  immense  audi- 
ence last  Thursday  evening.  He  charged  them  nothing, 
but  the  sum  realized  was  applied  to  a  fund  for  the  build- 
ing of  a  Town  Hall  at  Schuyler.  The  citizens  gave  him 
a  grand  banquet  and  reception.'' 

At  the  reception  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the  United 
States  at  Indianapolis  in  September  (1876),  Governor  Hen- 
dricks,  Senator  Morton,  both  Odd  Fellows,  Mayor  Caven, 
and  Mr.  Colfax  made  speeches  of  welcome.  After  specially 
welcoming  Past  Grand  Sire  Milton  J.  Durham,  of  Ken- 
tucky, and  Grand  Secretary  Ridgley,  Mr.  Colfax  said  : 

"  Welcome  to  the  Past  Grand  Sires,  who  come  hither  to  give  us  the 
aid  of  their  wisdom  and  experience  in  devising  what  shall  be  best  for  the 
good  of  the  Order  and  for  suffering  humanity.  Welcome  to  all  our  offi- 
cers and  representatives — from  the  South,  the  land  of  the  orange  grove 
and  magnolia,  where  hearts  are  warmed  by  their  tropical  sun,  and  where 


OUT  OF  OFFICE.  467 

the  flowers  bloom  in  perpetual  spring  ;  and  from  the  North,  whose  wintry 
blasts  toughen  sinews  and  muscles,  while  they  remind  us  of  the  sublime 
inculcations  of  charity  amid  the  wintry  storms  of  adversity.  Welcome 
from  the  East,  with  its  teeming  and  busy  hives  of  industry,  its  ocean 
ports,  where  the  masts  of  our  commerce  are  like  the  trees  of  the  forest  ; 
and  from  the  West,  '  so  far  and  yet  so  near  '  to  our  hearts,  whose  hospi- 
tality, as  this  grand  body  so  well  knows,  is  as  peerless  as  its  mammoth 
trees  and  its  magnificent  Yosemite,  and  which  '  opes  to  the  sunset  a  path- 
way of  gold.' 

"  Welcome  to  this  central  State  of  the  Republic,  within  whose  borders 
is  the  centre  of  the  forty-five  millions  of  English-speaking  people  of  this 
continent.  Welcome  to  its  capital,  which,  with  its  banners  and  music,  and, 
better  still,  with  throb  of  happy  heart  even  more  than  beat  of  sounding 
drum,  welcomes  this  senate  of  Odd  Fellowship  to  her  joyously  proffered 
hospitality.  Welcome  to  this  jurisdiction  of  the  Order,  rejoicing  in  its 
own  prosperity  at  home  and  proudly  sharing  in  the  prosperity  of  our 
organization  in  every  other  region  and  clime  where  its  altars  have  been 
reared.  Welcome  to  you,  as  you  come  hither  from  the  battle-fields  of 
humanity,  where  you  have  achieved  the  victories  whose  trophies  we  hang 
in  our  halls  as  the  proudest  to  be  won  in  the  brief  lifetime  God  has  given 
us  to  use.  Victors  over  destitution  and  anguish  !  Victors  over  misery 
and  woe  !  Victors  at  the  bedside  of  the  dying  brother,  where  you  have 
striven  to  pour  oil,  if  possible,  into  the  expiring  lamp  of  life  !  Victors  at 
the  grave,  where  for  the  humblest  equally  with  the  highest  the  evergreen 
upon  the  coffin  betokens  our  undying  remembrance  and  regard  !  Victors 
over  the  vices  which  would  ensnare  and  corrupt  and  perhaps  destroy  the 
unguarded  orphans  of  our  departed  brethren  !  Victors  over  the  demons 
of  want  and  poverty,  of  loneliness  and  temptation,  that  so  often  crouch  at 
the  hearth-stone  where  the  bereaved  widow  pines  !  Welcome  from  labors 
and  from  triumphs  like  these,  known  often  only  to  the  All-Seeing  Eye  ! 
Welcome,  in  the  name  of  Friendship,  Love,  and  Truth  !  And,  with 
heart  and  hand,  with  speaking  lip  and  beaming  eye,  we  exclaim  with  the 
sincerest  fraternal  regard,  Welcome,  thrice  welcome,  one  and  all." 

Writing  to  Mr.  Witter  in  June,  he  said  :  "  I  am  glad 
you  like  the  nominations  [Hayes  and  Wheeler].  I  have  not 
heard  from  Todd,  but  I  suspect  the  Elaine  fever  which 
swept  the  country  captured  him.  I  could  not  but  admire 
his  dash  and  audacity  myself.  But  had  he  been  nomi- 
nated, we  should  have  had  a  Henry  Clay  campaign — fire- 
works at  the  commencement,  explanation  and  defence  all 
through,  and  defeat  at  the  end.  I  am  not  so  sanguine 
about  the  result  unless  the  Democrats  blunder  at  St.  Louis. 
Hard  times  will  lose  us  thousands  of  votes  ;  and  if  we  do 


468  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

not  obtain  the  six  Southern  States  we  are  fairly  entitled 
to,  we  shall  have  a  close  run.  But  our  ticket  is  the  strong- 
est we  could  have  put  in  the  field." 

He  presided  at  a  ratification  meeting  at  South  Bend  in' 
July,  and  made  the  principal  speech.  He  spoke  occasion- 
ally during  the  summer  at  home  meetings,  and  gave  Octo- 
ber entirely  to  the  canvass,  speaking  in  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  to  large  audiences,  four  fifths  of 
whom  waited  to  shake  hands  with  "  our  Schuyler"  and 
wish  him  back  in  office  again.  At  Racine,  Wis.,  a  wig- 
wam holding  eighteen  hundred  was  so  inadequate  that  an 
adjournment  was  taken  to  the  chilly  open  air  ;  and  there, 
without  seats,  twice  eighteen  hundred  listened  to  him  for 
two  hours  as  they  had  in  "  the  times  that  tried  men's 
souls/' 

The  returns  gave  the  Presidency  to  the  Republicans  by 
a  majority  of  one  Electoral  vote.  The  returns  were  dis- 
puted. The  Constitution  says  :  "  The  President  of  the 
Senate  shall,  in  the  presence  of  the  Senate  and  the  House 
of  Representatives,  open  all  the  certificates,  and  the  votes 
shall  then  be  counted."  If  incomplete,  Congress  ought 
long  before  to  have  perfected  this  mandate,  but  it  had  not 
done  so.  The  Republicans  generally  held  the  Constitu- 
tional provision  to  mean  that  the  President  of  the  Senate 
should  himself  count  the  votes,  the  two  Houses  being  pres- 
ent only  as  witnesses.  The  President  of  the  Senate  was  a 
Republican.  Public  excitement  was  steadily  rising  over 
this  complication,  when  the  Democrats  in  Congress,  as- 
sisted by  about  one  third  of  the  Republicans,  the  President 
approving,  created  a  Commission  of  Fifteen  to  pass  upon 
the  validity  of  the  disputed  Electoral  votes — to  wit,  of 
Florida,  Louisiana,  and  South  Carolina.  The  Electoral 
Commission,  consisting  of  five  Representatives,  five  Sen- 
ators, and  five  Associate  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
awarded  the  Presidency  to  the  Hon.  Rutherford  B. 
Hayes. 

Mr.  Colfax  approved  of  the  seating  of  Mr.  Hayes,  but 
not  of  the  surrender  of  the  two  Southern  States  which  had 
saved  him.  This  was  the  final  abandonment  by  the  North 


OUT  OF  OFFICE.  469 

of  its  faithful  allies  in  the  South.  It  completed  the  sur- 
render of  the  only  important  result  of  the  war,  which,  when 
Colfax  left  public  life,  had  not  been  placed  beyond  the  pos- 
sibility of  such  a  catastrophe — namely,  equality  of  repre- 
sentation between  the  two  sections.  Under  the  Constitu- 
tion the  Southern  white  men  had  always  enjoyed  represen- 
tation in  national  politics  for  three  fifths  of  their  slaves. 
This  advantage  over  their  Northern  brethren  the  war  had 
brushed  away.  Now  it  was  practically  re-established,  in- 
creased by  the  other  two  fifths  of  their  slaves  ;  for,  so  far 
as  self-representation  was  concerned,  the  emancipated  race 
were  about  as  far  from  it  as  ever. 

The  Northern  people  contended  manfully  for  their  right 
of  equality  in  this  vital  matter  down  to  1872.  Upon  the 
defection  of  Greeley  and  Sumner  they  began  to  cower,  and 
they  cowered  more  and  more  throughout  President  Grant's 
second  term,  until,  in  trading  off  Louisiana  and  South  Car- 
olina for  the  Presidency,  in  1876,  they  gave  up  the  contest. 

In  his  Augusta  speech  following  his  defeat  in  1884,  Mr. 
Blaine  said  :  "It  is,  therefore,  evident  that  the  white  men 
in  these  Southern  States,  by  usurping  and  absorbing  the 
rights  of  colored  men,  are  exerting  just  double  the  power 
of  the  white  men  in  the  Northern  States.  If  that  is  to  be 
quietly  conceded  in  this  generation,  it  will  harden  into 
custom  until  the  badge  of  inferiority  will  attach  to  the 
Northern  white  man  as  odiously  as  ever  Norman  noble 
stamped  it  upon  the  brow  of  Saxon  churl."  Very  true, 
but  just  ten  years  too  late,  and  the  Republicans  had  only 
themselves  to  blame  for  it.  In  1872,  and  even  as  late  as 
1874,  they  still  had  the  disposition  of  the  matter  in  their 
own  hands  by  virtue  of  the  right  of  conquest.  No  party 
at  any  time  in  our  history  has  occupied  so  advantageous  a 
position.  But  by  submitting  to  the  infliction  of  an  injus- 
tice upon  themselves,  they  inflicted  a  double  injustice  on 
the  emancipated  race.  By  their  personal  dissensions  they 
lost  their  advantage  of  position,  they  dissipated  all  their 
advantages,  and  thereby  manifested  their  relative  "  inferi- 
ority" as  a  ruling  race. 

Except  in  one  heroic  moment  the  Northern  people  have 


470  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

always  been  willing  to  be  governed  rather  than  take  the 
trouble  to  govern.  After  the  War  of  Independence  closed 
they  accepted  a  plan  of  Confederation,  under  which  sixteen 
delegates  out  of  thirty-nine  present  were  able  in  1784  to 
defeat  slavery  restriction.  They  conceded  a  disproportion- 
ate share  of  political  power  to  the  Southern  minority,  in 
order  to  secure  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  Their 
superiority  thus  conceded  and  imbedded  in  the  Constitu- 
tion, the  Southerners  grew  so  arrogant  in  the  course  of 
nearly  a  century  of  rule  that  the  people  of  the  North  re- 
volted. Outnumbering  them  two  to  one,  and  being  five 
times  as  wealthy,  they  finally  overpowered  their  old  mas- 
ters in  the  field.  The  latter,  laying  aside  their  ineffectual 
arms,  at  once  assumed  their  former  tone,  and  persisting, 
through  the  sympathy  and  assistance  of  part  of  the  North- 
ern people,  were  at  length  enabled  to  resume  their  briefly 
interrupted  role.  In  the  present  (Forty-ninth)  Congress 
there  are  one  hundred  and  ten  chairmanships  and  second 
places  on  the  House  Committees.  Thirteen  Southern 
States,  which  in  1884  cast  one  million  six  hundred  thou- 
sand Democratic  votes,  hold  sixty-five  of  these  important 
places,  while  twenty-five  Northern  States,  which  in  1884 
cast  three  million  three  hundred  thousand  Democratic 
votes,  hold  but  forty-five.  It  must  be  confessed  that,  as 
compared  with  their  Southern  brethren,  the  Northern  peo- 
ple are  lacking  in  spirit.  Only  allow  them  to  attend  to 
their  money-getting,  and  they  seem  to  care  not  who  gov- 
erns them — the  Southerners,  through  the  negroes  whom 
the  Northern  people  freed  but  have  abandoned,  or  some 
sort  of  a  Board  of  Examiners. 

Instead  of  yielding  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana  as  a 
consideration  for  the  Presidency,  Colfax  would  have  had 
Congress  provide  for  new  elections  in  these  two  States. 
These  elections  would  have  been  supervised  by  the  press 
of  both  parties,  and  watched  by  the  whole  civilized  world. 
If  every  voter  had  cast  his  ballot,  the  result  would  have 
been  Republican,  and  that  would  have  confirmed  the 
President's  title.  If  intimidation  had  caused  an  adverse 
result,  the  Presidential  question  would  not  have  been 


OUT   OF  OFFICE.  471 

affected.  Such,  he  said,  was  the  true  way  of  settling  this, 
and,  indeed,  all  other  political  complications. 

Possibly  the  best  thing  that  was  left  the  Republicans  to 
do,  under  the  circumstances,  was  done ;  but  that  the 
Southern  white  man  should  possess  twice  the  power  of  the 
Northern  white  man  in  the  Federal  system  is  a  wrong 
which,  sooner  or  later,  in  one  way  or  other,  will  be 
righted.  The  true  way  to  right  it  is  for  North  and  South 
to  join  hands  in  educating  and  elevating  the  blacks  until 
they  are  able  to  assert  and  maintain  their  natural  and  Con- 
stitutional right  to  self-representation. 

Mr.  Colfax  took  part  in  the  commencement  exercises  of 
Oberlin  College  in  1876.  A  correspondent  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Inquirer  writes  : 

"  This  evening  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax  delivered  the  address  to  the  lit- 
erary societies  at  the  old  and  immense  Congregational  Church,  where  the 
famous  and  eccentric  President  Finney  so  long  and  so  eloquently 
preached.  Mr.  Colfax's  audience  was  an  overflowing  one  and  a  pleased 
one.  The  address  was  bright,  bearable,  and  useful,  as  Mr.  Colfax's  utter- 
ances are  apt  to  be.  It  was  an  invocation  to  nobler  aims,  to  loftier  aspi- 
rations, to  a  higher  life  in  that  great  world  into  which  the  graduates  were 
about  to  enter  ;  whose  trials  they  were  to  endure,  whose  wrong  they  must 
rebuke,  and  to  whose  uncharitableness  and  injustice  they  must  rise 
superior.  He  said  :  '  The  victim  of  habits  of  selfishness  and  indifference, 
which  though  at  first  like  threads  of  silk  become  gyves  of  iron  on  older 
limbs,  stands  in  striking  contrast  with  him  whose  heart  and  deeds  radiate 
the  sunshine  of  active  benevolence  and  a  warm  and  generous  humanity.'  " 

He  discussed  "  Hard  Times  and  their  Cure"  at  Beloit, 
Wis.,  in  September.  His  speech  was  published  in  full  in 
the  Chicago  papers.  Lecturing  a  little  later  at  Macon, 
Mo.,  he  was  received  with  all  possible  distinction  :  es- 
corted in  procession  by  the  civic  and  military  organiza- 
tions of  the  place  from  the  depot  to  his  hotel.  The 
Mayor,  a  Democrat,  welcomed  him  in  a  complimentary 
speech,  and  tendered  him  the  freedom  of  the  city.  At 
Winchester,  Pa.,  in  November,  his  lecture  was  the  event  of 
the  season.  "  Floor,  platform,  and  galleries,  aisles,  and 
open  spaces,"  said  the  News,  "  were  all  packed.  People 
came  from  forty  miles  distant  to  hear  him,  and  the  pro- 
ceeds paid  the  expense  of  the  entire  course  of  lectures." 


472  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Chicago  Advance  he  discussed  the  silver 
question,  basing  his  argument  for  the  remonetization  of 
the  white  metal  on  the  popular  will.  A  proposition  to 
demonetize  silver,  he  said,  would  not  carry  in  a  single 
Congressional  district  in  the  nation,  and  would  be  voted 
down  by  millions  of  votes.  It  had  been  demonetized  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  the  people,  a  wrong. that  should  be 
righted.  Silver,  equally  with  gold,  was  the  "  coin"  of  the 
Constitution.  It  was  in  "  coin,"  not  in  silver  or  gold,  but 
in  both  silver  and  gold,  that  our  national  debt  was  payable. 
After  the  wrong  of  demonetization  had  been  righted,  he 
would,  if  possible,  fix  the  ratio  of  coinage,  as  between 
silver  and  gold,  by  international  agreement. 

Mr.  Thurlow  Weed  wrote  him  in  December,  1877,  as 
follows  :  "  Many  thanks,  dear  old  friend,  for  your  letter 
and  the  enclosure.  I  deeply  regret  that  you  are  not  again 
in  Congress,  where  your  services  are  so  much  needed.  I 
had  earnest  conversations  last  week  with  the  President  and 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  both  of  whom  '  see  the  right,' 
but  the  latter  is  constantly  inhaling  a  gold  atmosphere.  I 
urged  the  President  if  the  Bland  Bill  came  to  him  in  an 
objectionable  form  to  return  it  with  a  message  showing 
how  by  utilizing  silver  prosperity  would  wait  on  resump- 
tion. I  hear  that  you  are  soon  to  be  in  this  State,  and 
hope  to  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you." 

He  revisited  California  in  1878,  stopping  in  Colorado 
and  Utah,  and  lecturing  by  the  way.  At  the  close  of  his 
lecture  in  Salt  Lake  City  he  renewed  his  protest  of  1865 
and  of  1869  against  the  Mormon  practice  of  polygamy,  in 
violation  of  law.  At  great  miscellaneous  gatherings  of  the 
people  which  he  afterward  addressed,  he  introduced  this 
subject,  with  the  view  of  stimulating  public  sentiment  to 
the  point  of  demanding  decisive  action  on  the  part  of  Con- 
gress. He  was  the  principal  speaker  at  a  mass-meeting  in 
Chicago,  early  in  1882,  which  gave  the  agitation  an  impetus 
that  resulted  in  the  banishment  of  polygamy  from  the 
lower  House  of  Congress  and  in  the  exclusion  of  actual 
polygamists  in  Utah  from  the  office-holding  and  elective 
franchise.  For  the  suppression  of  polygamy  he  had  stead- 


OUT  OF   OFFICE.  473 

ily  wrought  nearly  all  his  life.  His  was  a  temperament  to 
be  strongly  impressed  with  the  fateful  meaning  of  the 
planting  of  Asiatic  institutions  in  the  heart  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  thence  to  constrain  in  an  alien  direction  the 
growth  and  development  of  a  dozen  inchoate  States.  He 
felt  on  this  subject  as  he  did  with  regard  to  slavery,  and 
from  early  manhood  had  continually  raised  his  note  of 
warning,  endeavoring  to  rouse  the  national  conscience  to 
the  enormity  of  what  was  passing  in  the  seclusion  of  the 
Great  Salt  Lake  Valley.  He  now  thought  the  people  should 
demand  that  law-defying  "  revelations"  cease.  He  insisted 
that  the  Government  should  no  longer  tolerate,  on  any 
pretext,  the  practice  of  polygamy.  No  halting,  half- 
hearted policy  would  answer.  To  compromise  was  but  to 
give  time  for  further  evasion,  delay,  and  thwarting  of  the 
popular  will.  "  Beware,  therefore,  of  compromises.  Let 
the  word  be,  '  The  national  law  must  and  shall  be  obeyed,' 
and  God  prosper  the  right  !"  The  Edmunds  Act  of  1882 
did  not  satisfy  him.  He  wrote  the  author  :  "  I  regard  it 
as  only  a  step,  and  a  short  step,  in  the  right  direction. 
The  future  for  your  region  [Utah]  is  dark  to  me.  Some 
Congress  will  find  an  excuse  for  admission,  and  if  we  can't 
enforce  the  '  fundamental  conditions  '  on  the  reconstructed 
States,  how  can  we  do  anything  in  Utah,  with  the  three 
great  powers  of  Government — executive,  legislative,  and 
judicial — all  arrayed,  with  their  theocracy,  in  maintain- 
ing the  status  quo  ?  Don't  print  this.  I  can't  bear  to  think 
of  it.  But  when  good  men  and  a  Republican  Congress 
hesitate  about  doing  anything  effective,  after  the  whirlwind 
of  public  sentiment  inaugurated  by  the  Chicago  mass- 
meeting  and  your  Ladies'  Anti-Polygamy  Society,  what 
hope  is  there  ?  The  monogamist  Mormons,  like  the  poor 
whites  of  the  South,  are  as  ardent  defenders  of  the  insti- 
tution as  the  polygamists.'' 

His  remedy  was  a  commission  for  Utah  similar  to  that 
which  under  Congress  governs  the  District  of  Columbia. 

He  received  eighteen  invitations  to  deliver  Indepen- 
dence Day  orations  this  year.  Speaking  at  an  Agricultural 
Fair  at  Keosaqua,  la.,  in  September,  he  discussed  the 


474  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

subject  of  prison  labor.  He  held  that  the  contract  system 
should  be  abandoned,  the  convicts  worked  under  the  super- 
vision of  their  officers,  and  their  work  offered  in  open 
market  at  current  rates  for  similar  products.  The  increased 
product  would,  of  course,  tend  to  depress  prices ;  but 
the  product  of  prison  labor  would  be  barely  appreciable 
in  the  sum  total  of  production,  and  therefore  it  would 
but  slightly  affect  prices. 

In  1880,  after  General  Grant's  return  from  abroad,  Col- 
fax  said  to  a  newspaper  reporter  : 

"  But  I  do  rejoice  at  the  remarkable  ovation  he  has  received  from  the 
heathen  as  well  as  civilized  nations  of  the  world  during  his  tour.  It  is 
clearly  the  foreshadowing  of  history.  Although  we  have  many  who  lack 
national  pride  over  these  honors  paid  by  the  world  to  America's  repre- 
sentative citizen,  and  who  carp  and  sneer  about  it,  I  feel  that  he  has  ele- 
vated American  citizenship  by  his  long  journey,  and  that  our  nation 
stands  better  to-day  than  ever  before  with  the  whole  world.  And  although 
he  has  met  kings  and  queens,  prime-ministers  and  statesmen,  and  the  gov- 
erning men  of  the  world  generally,  he  has  never  caused  any  of  us  to 
blush  for  him,  or  to  wish  that  some  one  else  represented  us  in  these  won- 
derful receptions.  And  he  comes  back  to  us  the  same  unostentatious, 
self-reliant  man  he  was  when  he  left  us,  and  prouder  than  ever  before  of 
the  title  of  an  American  citizen.  I  have  no  more  knowledge  than  any 
one  else  of  his  desires  as  to  the  Presidency,  but  from  what  I  know  of  him, 
am  sure  he  would  not  accept  a  nomination  unless  under  circumstances 
that  indicated  it  as  a  duty,  and  that  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
people  desired  it.  He  would  be  the  last  man  to  plan  or  plot  for  it." 

When  in  1880  his  friend  Garfield  was  nominated  for 
President,  and  his  friend  Porter  for  Governor  of  Indiana, 
he  was  delighted.  Of  Governor  Porter  he  wrote  Mrs. 
Sinclair  :  "As  in  the  Presidential  nomination,  the  office 
sought  the  man  and  not  the  man  the  office  ;  and  as  in  that 
case,  it  would  have  been  hard  to  find  any  one  worthier." 
The  ratification  "  rally"  at  South  Bend,  in  August,  with 
great  parade  of  clubs  and  torchlights,  was  the  most  enthu- 
siastic political  demonstration  since  1868.  Just  returned 
from  Dakota,  Colfax  was  called  out  of  the  audience  to 
speak.  He  said  the  issue  was  whether  the  National  Gov- 
ernment should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  those  who  con- 
trolled the  rebel  Congress  at  Richmond  during  the  war  or 
of  those  who  controlled  the  Union  Congress  at  Washing- 


OUT   OF  OFFICE.  475 

ton.  Under  the  former  our  land  would  become,  instead 
of  the  United,  the  Confederate  States  of  America.  He 
made  a  long  and  stirring  speech.  Later  in  the  season  he 
engaged  earnestly  in  the  canvass,  receiving  magnificent 
ovations  wherever  he  went,  and  kindling  unbounded  en- 
thusiasm. He  discussed  taxation  and  the  tariff,  reduction 
of  the  national  debt,  resumption  of  specie  payments,  pro- 
tection of  naturalized  citizens,  and  the  solid  South,  with 
its  denial  of  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count.  His  pathway 
was  strewn  with  marked  Republican  gains. ' 

The  Democrats  counted  absolutely  on  carrying  the 
State  by  10,000  majority.  When,  on  the  contrary,  the  Re- 
publicans carried  it  by  7000,  "  I  never  saw  so  limp  a  set 
of  men/'  said  Colonel  McClure  to  Mr.  Colfax.  "  There 
was  no  work  in  them  any  more.  It  was  as  impossible  to 
rally  them  as  it  would  be  to  rally  a  lot  of  dead  men."  Col- 
fax  said  afterward  :  "  In  the  course  of  my  political  experi- 
ence, I  have  never  known  a  State  election  to  have  such  an 
influence  on  a  Presidential  election,  and  I  have  never  seen 
such  a  general  outburst  of  gratitude  as  there  was  toward 
Indiana  Republicans  after  the  election  of  Porter.  No  cam- 
paign was  ever  more  admirably  managed,  and  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  party  did  their  duty  nobly."  The  Indiana  vic- 
tory gave  the  Presidency  to  Garfield.  Thus  the  people 
buried  the  falsehoods  that  had  for  years  been  current 
about  Garfield,  and  this  vindication  applied  equally  to 
Colfax. 

A  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  was  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Republicans  of  Indiana.  Many  of  Colfax' s 
old  and  influential  friends  proffered  him  their  support  for 

1.  He  writes  the  author  : 

"  I  worked  with  all  my  might  for  Garfield's  election.  When  Maine  gave  us  a  black 
eye  [voting  in  September,  Maine  was  carried  by  the  Democrats],  and  it  was  evident  that 
if  Indiana  went  Democratic  all  would  be  lost,  and  the  State  Committee  appealed  to  me  to 
take  hold  as  in  the  past,  I  cancelled  five  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  lecture  engagements, 
and  plunged  into  the  campaign  with  the  old-time  enthusiasm  ;  canvassed  my  old  district 
and  those  adjoining  it  in  Indiana  and  Michigan,  made  hundreds  of  votes  of  old  constitu- 
ents and  friends  who  had  strayed  off,  and  paid  all  my  own  expenses  myself.  I  liked 
Garfield  always,  and  he  twice  came  to  my  district  and  helped  me  effectually.  He  has  the 
brain,  the  ambition,  the  experience,  and  the  adaptation  to  affairs,  to  make  us  an  excellent 
President,  and  is  perhaps  intellectually  the  best-qualified  President  we  have  had  for 
years." 


476  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

the  office  if  he  would  announce  himself  as  a  candidate. 
The,  Chicago  Times  said  :  "  There  is  no  longer  the  slightest 
obstacle  to  Colfax  assuming  his  old  position  in  Indiana 
politics,  if  he  wants  to  resume  it."  Called  upon  for  a 
speech  at  a  jollification  meeting,  Colfax  congratulated  the 
city,  the  county,  and  the  State  on  their  political  redemp- 
tion. He  said,  in  part  :  "  The  gain  of  665  in  the  county 
and  of  20,000  in  the  State  since  the  last  State  election  is 
almost  unexampled  in  recent  political  history,  and  not- 
withstanding the  charge  that  our  victory  '  was  won  by  in- 
timidation, fraud,  and  corruption,'  we  all  know  that  this 
remarkable  change  was  effected  all  around  us  here  by 
actual  conversions,  many  stating  the  fact  publicly  over 
their  own  names  before  the  election.  To  these  patriotic 
men  all  honor  to-night." 

He  enlarged  on  the  history  of  the  canvass,  and  urged 
that  the  canvassing  be  continued  with  the  same  zeal  and 
unity  to  the  November  election.  In  allusion  to  Mr.  Story's 
suggestion,  "  that  he  might  now  take  his  old  position  in 
Indiana  politics  if  he  wanted  to,"  he  said  :  "  Suppose  he 
doesn't  want  to  ?  The  Republicans  have  scores  worthy  of 
the  Senatorship — General  Ben  Harrison  for  example,  who 
has  earned  the  Senatorial  commission  by  his  noble  cam- 
paigns of  1876  and  1880.  It  may  not  astonish  my  friends 
to  learn  that  the  Chicago  Times  is  not  my  organ.  If  in 
twenty  years  it  has  spoken  of  me  without  disparagement, 
it  was  intended  in  a  Pickwickian  sense.  I  am  not  a  candi- 
date for  any  office,  elective  or  appointive." 

An  old  Indianapolis  friend  wrote  him  about  the  Sen- 
atorship. He  replied  :  "  To  every  one  who  has  addressed 
me  on  the  subject — members  of  the  Legislature,  editors, 
and  citizens,  including,  as  it  happens,  some  of  other  parties 
than  my  own — I  have  uniformly  replied  that  I  was  not  in 
any  way  an  aspirant  or  a  candidate  for  the  Senatorship, 
and  that  if  I  had  the  deciding  vote,  I  would  cast  it  for  any 
of  the  distinguished  Republicans  suggested  for  it  in  pref- 
erence to  myself."  If  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  could  have 
been  elected  Senator,  it  is  certain  that  he  did  not  desire  to 
be.  "  Ben  Harrison  will  be  the  Senator,"  he  wrote  another 


OUT  OF  OFFICE.  477 

enthusiastic  friend,  "  and  ought  to  be.  He  very  naturally 
prefers  it  to  a  Cabinet  position,  and  has  earned  it  again 
and  again.  He  will  honor  himself  and  the  State  in  that 
high  office. "  Harrison  wrote  Colfax  in  November,  thank- 
ing him  for  the  pleasant  things  he  had  said  about  him  ;  and 
after  Harrison  was  elected  Senator,  he  wrote  again,  saying  : 
"  Your  course  in  the  whole  matter  has  been  very  manly 
and  considerate  toward  me,  and  I  want  you  to  know  that 
I  appreciate  it." 

In  the  discussion  by  the  newspapers  of  President  Gar- 
field's  Cabinet,  the  Springfield  (O.)  Republic  said  : 

"  A  sketch  of  Schuyler  Colfax' s  life,  fairly  written,  would  be  a  most 
interesting  and  instructive  history  of  the  career  of  a  clean,  honest,  able 
patriotic  man,  who  has  served  his  country  with  great  industry  and  fidel- 
ity. A  Cabinet  with  Garfield  at  its  head  and  Elaine  as  one  of  its  mem- 
bers would  hardly  be  complete  without  Colfax.  The  President-elect  and 
the  Maine  Senator  have  shared  with  him  the  storm  of  scandal  and  unde- 
served denunciation,  and  as  each  has  been  vindicated— one  by  the  people 
of  the  country  at  large,  and  the  other  by  the  people  of  his  own  State— it 
would  be  quite  proper  that  Mr.  Colfax  should  be  honored  in  something 
the  same  way.  Mr.  Colfax  has  not  been  known  as  a  politician  for  some 
years,  simply  because  he  has  minded  his  own  business,  and  has  come  be- 
fore the  public  only  as  he  was  forced  to  decline  some  nomination  to  a 
high  office.  To  the  masses  of  the  country  he  has  made  himself  well  and 
most  favorably  known  as  a  lecturer  on  Abraham  Lincoln  and  as  a  noble 
and  most  attractive  Christian  gentleman." 

Had  President  Garfield  tendered  to  Colfax  a  Cabinet 
portfolio,  which  he  did  not,  it  would  have  been  declined. 
He  was  at  Hopkins,  Mo.,  to  fill  a  lecture  appointment  the 
evening  of  the  day  that  Garfield  was  shot.  His  audience 
was  large,  many  persons  having  been  attracted  from  a 
long  distance  in  the  country  by  the  reputation  of  the  lect- 
urer. He  prefaced  his  lecture  with  a  reference  to  the 
startling  event  of  the  morning,  "  couched  in  simple  but 
eloquent  words,"  said  the  local  paper,  "  which  went 
straight  to  the  hearts  of  the  audience  and  secured  their  at- 
tention and  sympathy."  At  the  conclusion  of  the  lecture 
it  was  announced  from  the  door  that  the  President  had 
died  at  seven  o'clock.  "  The  scene  that  followed  was  in- 
expressibly solemn  and  affecting.  Many  sobs  were  heard 


478  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

throughout  the  building,  and  there  was  scarcely  a  dry  eye 
in  the  audience.  Mr.  Colfax  rose  again,  and  paid  a  touch- 
ing tribute  to  the  character  and  worth  of  the  President,  the 
extemporaneous  words  called  forth  by  the  extraordinary 
occasion  far  surpassing  in  power  the  more  studied  effort  of 
the  evening.  The  audience  then  rose,  and  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Moorhead  invoked  Heaven's  blessings  on  the  afflicted 
family  of  the  murdered  Chief  Magistrate  and  upon  the 
mourning  nation." 

This  report  of  the  President's  death  proved  to  be  false. 
He  lived  nearly  three  months,  the  object  of  alternately 
hopeful  and  despairing  solicitude  to  the  whole  of  Christen- 
dom. Thousands  of  miles  from  the  banks  of  the  Potomac, 
where  the  sufferer  lay,  people  unconsciously  spoke  softly,  as 
though  he  were  in  an  upper  chamber  of  their  own  houses. 
For  his  recovery  special  praise  and  prayer-meetings  were 
held  all  over  the  land.  Such  a  meeting  was  held  in  South 
Bend  on  the  loth  of  July,  at  which,  after  brief  speeches 
from  several  gentlemen,  inclusive  of  Colfax,  the  following 
resolutions  were  adopted  : 

"  i.  That  we  heard  immediately  and  with  universal  horror  and  indig- 
nation of  the  attempt  made  by  an  assassin  to  take  the  life  of  our  es- 
teemed President,  Hon.  James  A.  Garfield  ;  and  having  all  the  official 
bulletins  issued  since  that  time  brought  to  us  promptly  through  the  en- 
terprise of  our  daily  press  and  the  kindness  of  our  telegraph  manager, 
have  followed  them  with  our  hopes  and  fears,  our  tears  and  smiles,  by 
day  and  by  night ;  that  we  rejoice  with  our  beloved  President  in  the 
great  hopefulness  of  his  condition,  and  tender  to  him  our  most  fervent 
wishes  and  the  assurance  of  our  heartiest  prayers  for  his  speedy  and 
complete  restoration  to  health  and  the  performance  of  the  duties  of  his 
high  office  ;  and  also  tender  to  his  noble  wife  our  deep  sympathy  in  her 
sorrow,  and  the  expression  of  our  warmest  esteem  for  her  wifely  fortitude 
and  devotion  ;  and  that  we  assure  them  both  that  we  will  ever  implore 
the  Beneficent  Giver  of  all  good  to  continue  to  the  nation  their  blessed 
example  of  domestic  felicity  and  mutual  love  and  helpfulness  in  the  White 
House,  until  the  end  of  the  Presidential  term. 

"  2.  That  this  action  be  signed  by  the  Hon  Schuyler  Colfax  in  behalf 
of  this  meeting,  and  be  transmitted  by  him  to  the  President  and  Mrs. 
Garfield,  through  James  G.  Elaine,  Secretary  of  State." 

Soon  after  this  Colfax  was  in  Dakota  and  said  to  a  rep- 
resentative of  the  press  : 


OUT  OF  OFFICE.  479 

"  I  saw  Mr.  Garfield  on  the  2d  of  June,  just  a  month  before  he  was 
shot,  and  I  am  sure  he  was  never  happier  than  on  the  morning  of  the 
tragedy.  Everything  was  running  smoothly.  Mrs.  Garfield  had  regained 
her  health,  and  they  were  about  starting  on  a  pleasure  trip  when  that 
miserable  wretch  shot  him.  It  was  dreadful,  dreadful  !  And  when 
stretched  on  what  he  thought  would  be  his  death-bed,  with  a  consciousness 
that  4ie  was  sacrificing  a  life  that  promised  continued  honor,  he  never 
breathed  a  word  against  his  slayer.  He  merely  said  :  '  My  time  is  come  ; 
God's  will  be  done.'  What  a  noble  character  -was  that  !  But  the  danger 
has  passed,  we  all  hope,  and  think.  The  President  is  nearer  the  people 
to-day  than  ever  before.  And  what  shall  I  say  of  Mrs.  Garfield,  as  she 
hovered  over  his  death-bed  as  she  thought,  in  the  midst  of  all  that  excite- 
ment, cool,  calm,  collected  ;  never  breathing  a  word  that  indicated  the 
agony  of  her  soul.  I  think  we  might  search  the  world  and  never  find  two 
such  characters  as  the  President  and  his  wife." 


Colfax  and  Garfield  had  always  been  on  very  intimate 
terms.  Colfax  was  Speaker  when  Garfield  first  went  to 
Congress.  He  did  what  he  fairly  could  to  bring  Garfield 
rapidly  forward,  and  Garfield  appreciated  it.  "  Let  me 
tell  you,  dear  Schuyler,"  he  wrote  in  1865,  "  that  since  our 
first  meeting  you  have  grown  on  me  till  I  feel  more  like  a 
lover  than  a  friend  toward  you."  He  was  more  indignant 
at  his  friend's  assassination  than  at  anything  else  that  ever 
occurred  in  all  his  experience.  He  re-cast  his  Lincoln  lect- 
ure to  include  Garfield,  entitled  it  "  Our  Martyred  Presi- 
dents," and  devoted  his  few  remaining  years  to  eulogiz- 
ing his  two  murdered  friends,  "  so  much  alike  in  poverty 
of  resources  and  fulness  of  success,  in  humbleness  of  toil 
and  splendor  of  achievement,  in  tenderness  of  life  and 
dreadfulness  of  death."  He  received  a  hundred  invita- 
tions to  repeat  this  lecture  within  twenty  days  after  its 
preparation  and  first  delivery. 

What  constitutes  Presidential  "disability,"  and  how 
and  by  whom  it  shall  be  ascertained  and  determined,  was 
much  discussed  during  Garfield's  long  illness.  In  a  letter 
to  the  New  York  Tribune^  Colfax  suggested  that,  inasmuch 
as  Congress  had  not  settled  the  question  by  law,  "  if  there 
are  pressing  executive  duties  to  be  performed,  as  doubtless 
there  are,  the  simple  and  safe  way  is  for  President  Garfield 
himself  to  summon  the  Vice-President  to  become  Acting- 


480  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

President  until  such  time  as  the  President  shall  feel  able  to 
resume  the  duties  of  his  office." 

Passing  through  Indianapolis  in  February,  1881,  on  his 
way  to  the  South,  Colfax  visited  the  State  House,  the 
Legislature  being  in  session.  In  each  House  he  was  given 
a  complimentary  reception.  A  recess  of  a  few  minutes 
was  taken,  the  members  were  introduced  to  him,  and  he 
made  pleasant  little  speeches,  reminiscent  of  days  gone  by 
and  of  great  men  passed  away.  In  May  he  joined  with  the 
post-office  officials  and  business  men  of  Chicago  in  dedi- 
cating a  monument  to  George  B.  Armstrong,  the  originator 
of  the  Railway  Mail  Service,  whom  he  characterized  as 
"  a  man  of  noble  character,  great  originality  and  force,  and 
vast  executive  ability."  In  Colfax's  oration  on  this  occa- 
sion the  curious  reader  will  find  a  lucid  account  of  the 
germination  of  the  idea  in  Armstrong's  brain  ;  of  how  he 
thought  and  worked  it  out  ;  introduced  it  experimentally, 
and  gradually  brought  it  to  an  almost  ideal  perfection, 
against  indifference,  and  even  hostility,  in  official  and  rail- 
way circles.  George  B.  Armstrong  died  of  overwork  in 
1871. 

In  June,  1881,  he  wrote  Senator  Mahope,  of  Virginia, 
congratulating  him  on  the  hopeful  indications  of  general 
Republican  co-operation  in  the  Liberal  campaign  in  Vir- 
ginia, and  the  auspicious  results  sure  to  follow  a  victory  on 
the  platform  of  a  full  vote  and  a  fair  count,  with  "  all 
rights  for  all,"  in  such  an  important  Southern  State.  Al- 
luding to  the  hesitation  of  some  Republicans  about  this 
co-operation,  he  recalled  the  reluctance  with  which  the 
Whig  State  Committee  of  Michigan  and  many  leading 
Whigs  gave  their  adhesion  to  the  fusion  by  which  the  Re- 
publican Party  was  born.  He  says  :  "  They  insisted  on 
calling  a  Whig  Convention  ;  but  the  rank  and  file,  the 
masses  of  the  Whig  Party,  saw  the  pathway  of  duty  more 
clearly  than  these  leaders,  and  the  Whig  Convention 
heartily  indorsed  the  new  movement,  and  approved  the 
nomination  of  ex-Senator  Bingham,  a  former  Democrat, 
as  candidate  for  Governor.  A  magnificent  and  sweeping 
victory  rewarded  their  patriotic  sacrifice.  And  it  was  fol- 


OUT   OF   OFFICE.  481 

lowed  by  a  new  North,  as  I  trust  and  believe  a  Liberal  vic- 
tory in  Virginia  will  be  followed  by  similar  victories  in 
other  Southern  States,  giving  the  nation  a  new  South. 
When  thus  the  menace  of  a  solid  South  shall  be  really  a 
thing  of  the  past,  and  the  Constitutional  amendments  shall 
be  fully  realized  there,  as  in  the  North,  guaranteeing  not 
only  liberty  to  all,  but  also  justice  to  all  and  protection  to 
all,  every  one  who  has  participated  in  it,  or  who  has  ever 
made  sacrifices  to  win  such  a  victory  for  the  right,  will 
rejoice  at  his  share  in  the  great  work  and  its  great  results." 

In  July  he  was  in  Nebraska,  and  told  the  Plattsmouth 
Herald  the  following  story:  "He  was  lecturing  some- 
where, shortly  after  the  war,  and  was  the  guest  of  a  man 
worth  a  million  dollars.  On  their  return  to  the  house  his 
host  said  :  '  Colfax,  do  you  know  what  I  was  thinking  of 
when  you  were  lecturing?'  'Why,  my  speech,  I  hope,' 
said  Colfax.  '  No  ;  I  was  just  thinking  I  would  give  half 
of  all  I  am  worth  if  I  could  master  the  issues  of  the  day  as 
you  do,  and  know  that  I  could  throw  out  a  little  poster, 
saying  I  would  lecture  such  a  night,  and  five  thousand 
people  or  more  would  rush  to  hear  me.'  '  Well,  what  do 
you  suppose  I  was  thinking  of  ? '  said  Colfax.  *  Of  what 
you  were  saying,  of  course,'  was  answered.  '  No  ;  I  was 
thinking  of  you  with  a  million  dollars  at  your  command  ; 
you  can  travel  as  you  like,  purchase  as  you  like,  live  at 
your  ease,  or  enjoy  yourself  as  you  choose,  while  I  travel 
forced  marches  six  months  in  the  year,  barely  making  both 
ends  meet,  and  get  sick  and  tired  of  all  speech-making." 

In  1882  the  South  Bend  Tribune  said  :  "  There  is  a  gen- 
uine boom  for  Colfax  for  Congress.  Mr.  J.  Berger  writes 
us  :  '  Though  I  am  not  a  politician,  yet  in  my  extensive 
travels  East  and  West  I  frequently  hear  people  say,  Where 
is  Mr.  Colfax  ?  We  ought  to  have  him  at  or  about  the 
head  of  this  nation.'  Mr.  F.  M.  Rule  writes  :  '  During  the 
past  eighteen  months  I  have  been  in  all  the  large  towns 
north  of  the  main  line  of  the  Wabash  &  Pacific  Railroad, 
and  the  one  question  asked,  when  it  became  known  that  I 
was  a  South  Bender,  has  been  an  implied  wish  to  see  him 
[Colfax]  again  in  public  life.'  "  These  the  Tribune  gave 


482  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

as  samples  of  letters  with  which  it  was  flooded.  "  If  Mr. 
Colfax  will  accede  to  the  wishes  of  the  people  instead  of 
consulting  his  own,"  said  the  Tribune,  "  he  will  represent 
this  district  in  the  next  Congress. "  The  tone  of  the  out- 
side press  is  illustrated  by  the  following  from  the  Chicago 
Inter-Ocean  :  "  Mr.  Colfax  has  often  declined,  but  is  just  as 
regularly  besought  to  accept,  and  so  it  will  go  on  to  the 
end.  Perhaps  the  best  way,  after  all,  is  to  elect  him  any- 
how, and  then  see  if  he  will  refuse  to  discharge  what  he  has 
often  declared  to  be  a  citizen's  duty.  If  a  whole  Congress 
could  be  elected  without  their  consent,  it  would  be  a  model 
body.  '  The  fittest  man  to  govern  is  the  unwillingest  un- 
less constrained.'  Remembering  that,  which  is  pretty 
nearly  an  axiom,  put  Colfax  in,  and  let  him  consent  after- 
ward." 

Mr.  E.  W.  Halford,  editor  of  the  Indiana  State  Journal, 
wrote  him  : 

"  I  spent  a  week  in  Washington,  and  while  there  heard  a  general  and 
warm  desire  expressed  that  you  should  come  to  the  House  from  your  old 
district.  After  I  came  home  I  started  the  idea  in  a  telegram  to  the  New 
York  Times.  It  has  since  been  taken  up,  and  you  must  be  touched  by 
the  warm  expressions  and  the  decided  hope  that  you  will  agree  to  stand. 
Permit  me  to  say  that  my  judgment  is  clear  that  you  should.  You  owe 
it  to  yourself,  your  future,  your  friends,  not  to  say  your  district  and  State. 
I  know  the  ease  and  comfort  of  your  present  life,  but  ease  and  comfort 
are  no  man's  prerogative  in  this  world.  You  cannot  be  defeated.  You 
will  be  the  leader  of  your  party  in  the  State  by  the  force  of  circumstances, 
as  well  as  one  of  the  leading  figures  in  Congress.  I -want  you  to  pray 
over  this.  I  am  in  dead  earnest.  Your  friends  are.  I  believe  it  to  be 
your  duty." 

Mr.  D.  S.  Marsh,  then  editor  of  the  South  Bend  Register, 
wrote  him  : 

"  The  handwriting  is  on  the  wall  !  Let  me  entreat  you,  by  the  re- 
gard you  have  for  your  personal  and  political  friends,  here  and  through- 
out the  nation  ;  by  your  love  for  the  grand  old  party  of  human  rights  and 
good  government,  sadly  in  need  to-day  of  your  leadership  in  the  House, 
and  which  in  two  years  more  will  need  a  Colfax  for  its  national  candidate 
to  steer  it  clear  of  dissensions  and  jealousies  in  iis  own  ranks  ;  by  the 
demands  of  your  manhood,  which  cannot  be  satisfied  in  the  zenith  of  its 
powers  to  rest  inactive  from  the  work  it  is  so  well  qualified  to  perform  ; 
by  all  these  reasons  and  more,  not  to  dampen  the  ardor  of  those  so  en- 


OUT  OF   OFFICE.  483 

thusiastic  and  disinterested  in  your  behalf.  Don't  interfere  against  the 
rising  tide  !  The  district  will  be  a  unit  for  you.  The  people,  the  press, 
and  the  politicians,  even,  express  but  the  one  sentiment,  harmonious  and 
jubilant.  All  that  is  asked  is  that  you  stand  aside  and  see  the  salvation 
of  the  Lord.  We  shall  have  such  an  uprising  in  the  district  as  you  have 
never  before  seen.  Stay  your  voice  and  hand  from  the  ungracious  task 
of  depriving  your  people  of  their  long-expected  opportunity." 

The  Hon.  C.  H.  Van  Wyck,  Senator  from  Nebraska, 
wrote  him  : 

"  I  was  just  reading  this  Sunday  evening  an  item— that  you  would 
probably  yield  to  the  wishes  of  your  friends  in  the  old  district,  and  allow 
them  to  return  you  to  the  House  of  Representatives.  I  earnestly  hope 
you  may  do  so.  Many,  many  times  I  have  felt  and  remarked  that  you 
should  have  done  this  very  thing  years  ago.  If  you  conclude  to  gratify 
your  friends,  there  will  go  up  grateful  acclaims  from  millions  of  warm, 
generous,  and,  I  may  say,  loving  hearts.  If  it  requires  some  sacrifice  on 
your  part,  make  it.  This  much  is  due  to  yourself  and  the  nation." 

The  Rev.  Charles  D.  Nott,  then  pastor  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church,  Washington,  D.  C.,  wrote  him  : 

"  I  think  you  make  a  great  mistake  by  persisting  in  your  refusal  to 
again  enter  public  life.  You  may  not  be  aware  of  h,  but  it  has  a  bad 
effect  not  only  on 'the  public,  but  on  yourself.  Letting  the  former  go, 
your  action  has  on  you  the  effect  of  deepening  the  impression  that  you 
are  a  wounded  man,  with  a  wounded  spirit.  It  helps  to  cloud  and  sadden 
your  life,  when,  my  dear  sir,  there  is  no  need  of  it.  I  think  I  am  correct 
in  saying  that  to  an  immense  majority  of  your  fellow-citizens  you  are  an 
innocent  man,  wronged  ;  and  my  criticism  on  your  course  is  that  you 
have  unwisely  permitted  this  wrong  to  crush,  or,  at  least,  to  keep  you 
down.  You  should  do  so  no  longer.  It  shows— pardon  me  for  speak- 
ing plainly— a  weakness  that,  to  say  the  least,  it  is  unwise  to  exhibit. 
You  should  show  that  you  are  made  of  '  sterner  stuff,'  and  if  God  offers 
you  the  opportunity,  you  should  once  again  stand  in  the  sunlight  and  not 
remain  in  the  shadow.  Remember,  *  My  ways  are  not  your  ways,'  saith 
the  Lord.  His  way,  for  you,  had  in  it  a  bitter  experience,  and  He  knew 
what  was  best.  If  now  He  is  willing  to  set  you  on  the  rock,  and  put  the 
new  song  in  your  mouth,  don't  you  thwart  His  purpose.  God's  ways  are 
past  finding  out.  I  don't  know  why  He  permitted  you  to  have  that  sor- 
row— nor  I  don't  care.  He  did,  and  that's  enough.  But  one  of  the 
most  profound  truths  in  God's  government  is  that  while  He  permits 
such  things  He  at  the  same  time  offers  opportunities,  chances,  to  His 
afflicted  children.  And  if  He  in  His  providence  is  now  willing  to  offer 
you  one  more,  don't  you  let  it  go  by." 

These  are  samples  of  letters  he  was  in  receipt  of  through- 


484  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

out  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life.  His  friends  thought  that 
he  did  himself  an  injustice  by  refusing  the  vindication  of 
an  election  to  Congress  by  his  life-long  neighbors.  But 
they  could  not  make  him  see  it  as  they  did.  On  this  occa- 
sion he  replied  as  follows  : 

"  SOUTH  BEND,  IND.,  April  3,  1882. 
"  To  the  Editor  of  the  South  Bend  Tribune  : 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  The  unexpected  demands  by  too  partial  friends,  that 
I  should  return  to  the  public  service,  are  sincerely  appreciated  by  me, 
even  though  I  cannot  respond  as  they  desire.  All  through  the  twenty 
stormiest  years  of  our  nation's  history  in  which  my  public  life  was  cast, 
the  unchangeable  confidence  and  regard  of  my  constituents  was  not  only 
a  shield  and  a  buckler,  but  a  solace  which  lightened  many  a  burden  and 
a  joy  which  always  gladdened  my  heart.  And  till  my  dying  day,  I  can- 
not forget  the  cordial  and  hearty  home-greeting  by  ten  thousand  home 
friends  of  all  parties,  when,  at  the  close  of  my  public  life,  I  returned  to 
South  Bend  as  a  private  citizen.  I  determined  then  that  twenty  yean  of 
the  prime  of  my  life,  given  to  the  service  of  my  country,  was  an  adequate 
performance  of  any  citizen's  duty  ;  and  which,  as  I  stated  then,  '  had 
been  so  conscientiously  performed  that  I  do  not  fear  the  severest  judg- 
ment of  my  Creator  on  every  act  of  that  public  life,  from  its  commence- 
ment to  its  close.' 

"  My  heart  is  not  a  cold  one,  and  it  has  been  touched  by  the  friendly 
and  urgent  appeals  that  I  should  exchange  my  present  independent  and 
enjoyable  life  as  a  private  citizen  for  the  toils  and  responsibilities  of 
official  station,  as  well  as  the  indorsement  of  these  home  manifestations 
by  so  many  outside  of  the  district.  But  I  must  reply  that,  knowing  by 
experience  all  about  these  labors,  I  cannot  consent  to  again  undertake 
their  performance,  and  must  therefore  be  allowed  to  decline,  gratefully 
and  respectfully,  but  positively  and  inflexibly.  I  have  considered  the 
question  in  every  aspect  ;  and  it  is  due  to  whoever  may  finally  be  selected 
as  our  standard-bearer,  that  I  should  state,  thus  early,  that  I  cannot  be  a 
candidate  in  any  contingency,  and  cannot  accept  a  nomination,  even 
if  tendered  with  the  understanding  that  I  should  not  be  expected  to  can- 
vass at  all,  as  in  the  olden  time.  If  public  service  is  regarded  as  a  pleas- 
ure, I  have  certainly  had  more  than  my  share  of  that  pleasure.  If  it  is 
regarded  as  a  duty,  have  I  not  performed  my  full  share  of  that  duty  ? 
And  my  only  ambition  now  is  to  go  in  and  out  among  my  townsmen  as 
a  private  citizen  during  what  years  of  life  may  remain  for  me  to  enjoy 
on  the  earth.  With  sincere  regard  for  yourself,  and  all  other  friends  who 
have  interested  themselves  in  this  matter, 

"  I  am  very  truly  yours, 

"SCHUYLER  COLFAX." 

Upon  this  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Commercial  Adver- 


OUT   OF   OFFICE.  485 

tiser  wrote  him  :  "I  read  in  the  morning  papers  with  sincere 
regret  your  determination  not  to  accept  a  nomination  for 
Congress.  I  trust  you  will  reconsider.  I  assure  you,  I 
would  rejoice  to  see  you  back  in  the  House.  Though  we 
have  differed  at  times,  and  my  hot,  impulsive  nature  has 
made  me  say  things  which  I  have  regretted,  I  never  doubted 
your  honesty  and  patriotism.  The  old-time  feeling  comes 
back  and  recalls  the  past — you  may  have  forgotten  that 
our  acquaintance  dates  back  almost  thirty-five  years.  We 
met  first  I  think  at  Philadelphia  at  the  Whig  Convention 
that  nominated  Taylor  in  1848.  It  is  a  long  time  to  look 
back.  By  the  way,  I  met  an  old  friend  the  other  day, 
'  Bill '  Hayes,  son  of  old  Jacob,  who  desired  to  thank  me 
for  the  handsome  notice  I  published  about  you  in  the  Com- 
mercial. The  old  fellow  seemed  delighted  with  it.  Arthur's 
veto  of  the  anti-Chinese  Bill  was  a  great  thing.  To  have 
signed  the  abomination  would  have  been  a  serious  set-back 
for  the  party  of  progress  and  humanity.  Trusting  you 
will  reconsider  your  determination,  I  remain  truly  yours, 

"  HUGH  J.  HASTINGS." 

He  went  on  his  way  and  kept  at  his  work.  He  was 
41  here,  there,  and  everywhere,  in  the  interest  of  every  in- 
stitution for  the  extension  of  light,  liberty,  and  salvation." 
The  Republicans  were  overwhelmingly  defeated  in  the 
elections.  A  representative  of  the  New  York  Graphic 
interviewed  him  as  to  the  causes  of  this  political  land- 
slide, and  reports  him  as  follows  : 

"  Mr.  Colfax  thought  the  result  due  more  than  all  else  to  the  deter- 
mination on  the  part  of  the  Republican  masses  to  convince  their  would-be 
leaders  that  the  party  was  emphatically  a  party  '  of  the  people,  for  the 
people,  and  especially  by  the  people,'  and  that  those  only  could  lead  suc- 
cessfully who,  like  Mr.  Lincoln,  respected  public  opinion,  yielded  per- 
sonal preferences  for  the  good  of  the  whole,  recognized  all  the  varied 
elements  of  the  organization,  and  sought  to  harmonize,  instead  of  to 
trample  upon,  the  conflicting  sections  or  factions  of  the  party.  The  levy- 
ing of  political  assessments  was  a  cause  of  dissatisfaction.  The  hue  and 
cry  against  the  River  and  Harbor  Bill  poisoned  the  public  mind.  Full 
five  sixths  of  its  appropriations  were  in  accordance  with  the  Republican 
idea  of  internal  improvements  ;  but  a  few  unwise  ones,  with  the  sweeping 
invectives  of  many  Republican  papers  against  the  bill  as  a  whole,  preju- 


486  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

diced  scores  of  thousands  against  us.  The  murder  of  President  Garfield 
and  the  accession  of  the  Vice-President  was  a  considerable  factor  in  pro- 
ducing this  adverse  result.  ( 
"  Still  another  was  the  failure  of  the  Republican  Congress  to  reduce 
taxation  when  there  was  an  overflowing  Treasury.  Every  Republican 
Congress  heretofore  had  given  our  voters  solid  ground  to  stand  on  in  their 
appeals  to  the  people  ;  such  as  restricting  slavery  extension,  arming  the 
nation  for  war,  destroying  slavery,  establishing  equality,  justice,  and  pro- 
tection to  all,  reconstruction  on  a  loyal  basis,  maintaining  and  fortifying 
the  national  credit,  etc.  But  our  present  Congress  allowed  factious  op- 
position to  defeat  several  bills  that  would  have  immensely  strengthened  us 
before  the  people,  *  The  future  is  not  assured  to  us  by  the  chastening  of 
this  defeat,  as  so  many  Republicans  assume.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe 
these  figures  prove  that  no  Republican  Presidential  candidate  can  be  suc- 
cessful in  1884,  except  one  who  has  had  no  participation  at  all  in  these 
warring  factions,  but  who  is  so  acceptable  to  the  millions  of  the  rank  and 
file  that  his  strength  with  them  will  compel  his  nomination — some  such 
statesman  as  Windom,  of  Minnesota,  General  Harrison,  of  Indiana,  or, 
Edmunds,  of  Vermont ;  about  whom  there  can  be  so  little  said  ad- 
versely, and  so  much  commendatory.'  " 

In  January,  1883,  he  said  to  the  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch  : 
"  I  suppose  the  reason  I  hold  up  so  well  is  that  I  pass  my 
time  travelling  from  place  to  place,  talking  about  things 
with  which  I  am  personally  familiar.  The  chances  for  Re- 
publican success  in  1884  are  not  so  good  as  might  be 
desired,  but  it  is  fortunate  that  the  bad  blood  in  the  party 
has  worked  itself  off  in  an  off-year.  Harrison,  Lincoln,  or 
Windom  would  receive  the  support  of  the  whole  party. 
They  have  taken  no  part  in  the  faction  fight.  It  is  going 
to  be  a  hard  fight,  and  the  Democrats  will  have  a  better 
chance  than  for  many  years  ;  still,  I  think  the  Republicans 
will  succeed.  A  season  of  stagnation  in  business  is  await- 
ing us,  owing  to  the  balance  of  trade  having  turned  against 
us,  low  prices  for  crops,  extravagance  of  the  people,  and 
too  much  railroad  building." 

A  year  later  he  said  to  the  Iowa  State  Register  :  "It  is 
absolutely  necessary  for  the  Republicans  to  nominate  a 
man  for  President  who  can  carry  New  York.  I  am  in  favor 
of  keeping  the  Democracy  out  as  long  as  the  Children  of 
Israel  were  kept  out  of  the  Promised  Land." 

Prevented  by  pre-engagements  from   being  in  attend- 


OUT   OF   OFFICE.  487 

ance  at  the  unveiling  of  the  monument  to  Senator  Oliver 
P.  Morton  at  Indianapolis  in  January,  1884,  he  wrote  the 
following  tribute  to  be  read  on  that  occasion  : 

"  Of  all  the  Governors  whose  patriotic  and  energetic  co-operation 
with  the  Government  aided  so  potentially  in  subjugating  the  great  Rebel- 
lion, none  will  have  a  higher  place  on  the  impartial  tablets  of  history  than 
Oliver  P.  Morton.  Fertile  in  resources,  tireless  in  labor,  sleepless  in 
zeal,  daring  in  responsibility,  fearless  of  opposition,  he  was  pre-eminently 
the  war  Governor  of  those  times.  Sacrificing  his  health,  as  he  did,  for 
his  country,  whose  triumph  he  had  so  much  at  heart,  I  doubt  not  he 
would,  if  needed,  have  sacrificed  his  life  for  it  without  a  sigh  or  a  regret. 
As  a  leader  in  the  labors,  the  excitements,  and  debates  of  a  political  cam- 
paign, he  had  no  superior  in  that  eventful  era.  Of  the  aggressive  type 
of  Thaddeus  Stevens  on  the  Republican  side,  and  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
on  the  Democratic  side,  he  enjoyed  the  cut-and-thrust,  the  retort  and 
repartee  of  the  hustings,  never  happier  than  when  charging  along  the 
entire  line  of  his  opponents.  As  time  softens  the  asperities  of  political 
warfare,  all  parties  will  recognize  Oliver  P.  Morton — Governor  and 
Senator — as  one  of  the  great  men  of  whom  Indiana  has  a  right  to  be 
proud." 

Ten  years  after  his  retirement  from  office,  wherever  he 
went — and  he  went  everywhere — Schuyler  Colfax  was 
hailed  with  all  the  demonstrations  by  which  men  seek  to 
show  esteem  and  affection.  It  was  not  Colfax  the  states- 
man, the  source  of  power  and  dispenser  of  place,  who  was 
thus  honored,  but  Colfax  the  man.  Always  on  the  wing, 
and  always  observant,  he  noted  defects,  suggested  remedies 
and  improvements  ;  he  was  become  a  sort  of  universal  cen- 
sor— of  politics,  of  morals  and  manners,  of  business 
methods  and  appliances.  His  papers  are  full  of  acknowl- 
edgments of  the  pertinency  and  usefulness  of  his  thousand 
suggestions,  testimonials  from  men  of  all  trades  and 
professions — railroad  men,  national  and  State  officials, 
politicians,  Congressmen,  editors,  expressmen,  authors, 
artists,  showmen — all  men  who  had  to  do  in  any  way  with 
the  public.  And  farmers,  mechanics,  teachers,  school 
children,  college  societies,  divines,  men  of  the  exchange, 
Odd  Fellows,  4th  of  July  audiences,  and  politicians  hung 
on  his  words  as  if  enchanted.  He  seemed  to  know  every- 
thing, and  to  be  able  to  impart  something  of  interest  to 


488  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

everybody.  His  views  on  topics  of  current  interest  were 
eagerly  sought  after  and  often  widely  published. 

He  was  neither  more  nor  less  ready  to  turn  aside  to 
make  a  fellow-creature  happy  than  in  his  more  conspicuous 
days.  "It  greatly  delighted  me  that  you  remembered  a 
poor  printer  who  has  had  nothing  but  the  up-hill  fight  in 
life  thus  far  ;  your  call  at  our  office  was  a  pleasure  and  a 
benefit,"  wrote  an  "  assistant  editor"  of  Towanda,  Pa.,  in 
1882.  An  elderly  gentleman  of  Buchanan,  Mich.,  had 
heard  of  him  for  many  years,  but  could  not  get  out  to  hear 
him  lecture.  This  came  to  his  ears  after  the  lecture,  his 
informant  supposing  that  would  be  the  last  of  it.  But  the 
next  morning,  at  the  risk  of  missing  his  train,  the  lecturer 
insisted  on  being  conducted  to  the  residence  of  the  old 
man,  half  a  mile  from  his  hotel.  The  recipient  of  this  at- 
tention "  cried  like  a  child  "  over  it.  Such  things  he  was 
always  doing. 

His  engagements  prevented  him  from  accompanying 
Mr.  Villard's  party  to  drive  the  last  spike  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad.  Mr.  Villard  afterward  placed  a  special 
car  at  his  disposal,  and  with  his  wife  and  a  party  of  friends, 
among  them  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Theodore  P.  Haughey,  of  Indi- 
anapolis, ex-Lieutenant-Governor  Bross,  of  Chicago,  he 
went  over  the  road,  a  trip  of  four  thousand  miles, "  with- 
out a  single  drawback  to  our  pleasure."  In  the  far  North- 
west he  and  his  friends  were  received  with  all  possible  dis- 
tinction. "  It  was  a  royal  trip,  the  grandest  and  most  de- 
lightful of  my  life,  and  the  hospitality  was  princely." 

Just  a  year  before  he  died  he  delivered  his  lecture  on 
Lincoln  and  Garfield  in  the  hall  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  at  South  Bend.  The  hall  was  crowded,  a 
hundred  sat  on  the  platform.  Yet  he  had  delivered  this 
lecture  in  South  Bend,  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  as  now, 
nearly  every  winter  for  ten  years.  It  was  on  one  of  these 
occasions  that  Mrs.  Christiana  Foote  introduced  him  by 
saying  :  "  Knowing  this  audience  to  be  already  in  love 
with  the  Speaker,  as  Priscilla  was  in  '  The  Courtship  of 
Miles  Standish,'  I  will  but  say  :  '  Schuyler,  thee  had  better 
speak  for  thyself.'  "  At  another  time,  young  Schuyler, 


OUT   OF  OFFICE.  489 

then  eleven,  after  sitting  out  the  lecture,  threw  his  arms 
about  his  father's  neck,  and  exclaimed  :  "  Oh,  papa,  it  was 
as  good  as  the  minstrels  !"  Colfax  considered  this  as  high 
a  compliment  as  he  ever  received.  This  January  (1884)  he 
wrote  :  "  My  season  is  so  crowded  I  had  to  lecture  five 
times  this  week  in  Missouri — large  and  enthusiastic  audi- 
ences, and  four  hundred  dollars."  On  the  anniversary  of 
the  Odd  Fellows  in  April,  he  was  with  his  brethren  at 
Marion,  Ind.  His  4th  of  July  oration  was  pronounced 
at  Waseca,  Minn.  He  closed  as  follows  :  "  Law  and  order 
are  the  pillars  of  the  Republic,  justice  and  honor  its  corner- 
stones. The  title  of  American  citizen  is  the  proudest  title 
on  earth.  In  liberty  and  law,  in  equality  and  right,  with 
education  free  to  all,  with  the  highest  office  open  to  the 
humblest  citizen,  let  our  rejoicing  progress  from  year  to 
year,  from  centennial  to  centennial,  until  «a  circle  of  repub- 
lics shall  surround  the  globe."  In  July  he  took  part  in  the 
opening  of  the  Colfax  Hotel  at  the  Colfax  Springs  on  the 
Rock  Island  Railroad  in  Iowa.  A  longing  to  see  once 
again  his  Western  relatives  having  taken  possession  of  him, 
October  found  him  and  Mrs.  Colfax  in  Denver,  where  his 
sisters,  living  in  Nebraska  and  Utah,  joined  them  in  a 
family  reunion.  He  was  never  more  genial  and  jovial,  or 
apparently  more  robust.  Little  did  they  think  they  would 
never  see  him  alive  again. 

He  was  full  of  the  Presidential  campaign.  "  We  are 
all  looking  to  Ohio,"  he  wrote  Mr.  Phcebus,  of  Old 
Point  Comfort,  Virginia, "  and  hoping  for  twenty  thousand 
for  the  right.  The  persistent,  wicked,  malignant,  pitiless 
attacks  on  Elaine  have  affected  public  opinion  in  some 
localities,  and  occasionally  I  have  a  twinge  of  apprehen- 
sion as  to  the  result."  The  South  Bend  Register  of  Novem- 
ber 3d,  1884,  gives  a  two-column  summary  of  his  last  politi- 
cal speech.  "  Mr.  Colfax  spoke  over  two  hours  on  the  his- 
tory of  the  nation  during  the  twenty-four  years  it  had  been 
under  Republican  rule,  arguing  from  first  to  thirteenthly, 
that  the  Democratic  organization  had  bitterly  opposed 
every  act  that  had  redounded  to  the  glory  of  the  nation, 
and  the  nation's  wonderful  development  had  come  to  it 


490  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

since  the  exodus  of  the  last  Democratic  President  from  the 
White  House.  He  closed  by  invoking  the  testimony  of 
the  poor  of  the  whole  world  against  the  apostles  of  discon- 
tent, who  go  about  over  the  land  denouncing  Republican 
legislation.  He  said  :  '  You  may  go  around  the  world, 
from  clime  to  clime,  and  from  continent  to  continent,  and 
wherever  you  ask  the  poor,  as  they  eat  their  potatoes  and 
salt,  where  they  would  wish  to  go  to  better  their  condi- 
tion, from  beaming  eye  and  speaking  lip  will  come  the 
answer  :  "  America,  where  all  rule — the  poor  man's  earthly 
paradise."  He  welcomed  them  if  they  came  with  their 
families  to  live  and  die  with  us  with  Americanized  hearts  ; 
welcomed  them  to  the  gold  and  silver  mines  they  could 
find  and  work  in  our  mountains  ;  to  the  free  farms  in  our 
new  North-west,  on  condition  of  occupancy  ;  to  our  fac- 
tories, furnaces,  and  forges  ;  and  to  our  cities,  with  the 
best  wages  that  can  be  afforded  under  Republican  legisla- 
tion and  Republican  protection."  Referring  to  the 
charges  against  Blaine,  he  asked  :  "  What  vote  of  his  in 
twenty  years  was  corrupt,  wrong,  or  unwise  ?  Or  what 
ruling  of  his  as  Speaker  ?"  and  answered  :  "  Not  one." 

November  nth  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Phcebus  :  "Wife  and 
I  shortened  our  October  visit  to  Colorado,  that  I  might 
make  three  speeches  to  my  old  constituents  before  election. 
See  within  abstract  of  one.  Didn't  do  any  good  !  No 
heart  to  talk  politics."  December  2d  he  wrote  again  to 
the  same  gentleman  : 

"  I  don't  think  the  result  will  '  kill  Blaine,'  either  personally  or  politi- 
cally. The  election,  lost,  after  all,  by  a  mere  scratch,  and  that  an  accident, 
showed  that  he  possessed  such  great  elements  of  strength  (astonishing 
the  bolting  Republicans)  that  if  there  was  a  convention  to-day  he  would 
surely  be  nominated  again,  and  stands  a  good  chance  of  being  the  nom- 
inee four  years  hence.  I  doubt  the  policy,  for  there  is  a  heap  of  meaning 
in  that  brief  proverb,  '  Success  succeeds  ;  '  but  the  examples  of  Harrison 
and  Jackson  [both  barely  defeated  at  their  first  canvass]  will  be  used  by 
his  friends,  and,  also,  that  the  slanders  with  which  the  present  campaign 
was  so  full  could  not  be  as  effective  a  second  time,  and  were  proved  to 
have  been  insufficient  to  defeat  him  but  for  an  accident. 

"  I  was  not  in  favor  of  Elaine's  nomination,  not  that  these  stories  had 
any  weight  with  me,  but  because  I  was  sure  they  would  put  us  on  the 


OUT   OF   OFFICE.  49! 

defensive  ;  and  while  stories  against  Cleveland  would  not  affect  one  vote 
in  a  million  even  of  high-toned  Christian  Democrats,  I  knew  our  party 
was  so  constituted  that  stories  against  a  Republican  would  have  to  be  ex- 
plained, denied,  confuted  to  the  last  letter  of  them,  or  lose  him  many 
votes.  Nor  did  I  think  that  President  Arthur,  successful  as  has  been  his 
Administration,  disappointing  millions  most  agreeably,  could  carry  Ohio, 
and  its  loss  in  October  would  have  been  almost  a  fatal  blow  at  success  in 
November.  My  ideal  ticket  was  Hawley  and  Lincoln,  against  whom 
nothing  could  have  been  said,  no  bolting,  but  many  elements  of  strength." 

He  detailed  to  Mr.  Phoebus  his  plans  for  the  win- 
ter and  spring.  He  intended  to  visit  the  New  Orleans 
Exposition  in  March,  and  to  return  to  New  York  by  way 
of  Florida  in  April.  But.  he  changed  these  plans,  as  will 
be  seen  by  the  following  letter  to  Mrs.  Hollister  : 

"  ANDOVER,  O.,  Monday,  December  22,  1884. 

"  MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  I  was  very  glad  to  receive  at  New  York,  remailed, 
your  letter  of  the  4th  instant  ;  and  although  you  '  did  not  know  whose 
turn  it  was  to  write,1  and  thought  it  was  ours,  you  did  right  in  waiting 
right  away,  for  Nellie  says  she  wrote  last,  and  I  am  sure  I  don't  owe 
any  one  a  letter  ! 

"  We  were  in  New  York  nearly  four  weeks,  too  long  for  both  of  us, 
but  we  wanted  to  spend  Schuy's  four  days  at  Thanksgiving  with  him  there, 
and  to  bring  him  back  with  us  to  Ohio  and  Indiana  for  the  two  and  a  half 
weeks'  holiday  recess.  So  I  put  in  a  little  lecturing  (only  twice  a  week, 
as  that  is  my  maximum  now — getting  older  and  lazy  and  more  desirous 
to  hang  around  home,  you  see)  to  pay  expenses,  and  spent  the  balance  of 
the  time  with  Nellie  in  New  York. 

"  She  had  two  lunch  parties  ('  hen  parties' calls  them,  but  Nellie 

insisted  on  changing  it  to  '  dove  parties')  at 's  ;  one  dinner  party 

there  that  I  attended  also  ;  and  one  day  that  I  was  away took  her 

to  the  Obelisk,  Museum,  etc.,  as  she  did  you  ;  and  they  talked  over  the 
delightful  time  she  and  you  had  there. 

"Mr.  was  all  the  time  most  talking  about  you  (you  are  a  great 

favorite  of  his),  and  although  he  had  been  among  the  most  active  Cleve- 
land Republicans,  he  never  said  a  word  about  politics  to  me,  and  only 
jocosely  alluded  to  politics  when  he  showed  us  a  handkerchief  with  Cleve- 
land's phiz  in  it,  and  said  '  I  guess  I  wilt  send  that  to  Kinkie,'  and  we  all 
concurred. 

"  You  said  you  would  tell  Nellie,  if  she  would  write,  what  Ovando 
gave  you  on  the  anniversary,  but  we  found  out.  You  wrote  to  some  one 
else — can  you  remember  who  ? — that  '  you  both  were  "  retrenching,"  but 
that  Ovando  stopped  long  enough  to  give  you  a  beautiful  ring  on  the 
anniversary.' 

"  But  to  resume  !     We  dined  out  several  times,  went  to  nearly  all  the 


492  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

theatres  once,  also  to  a  grand  opera  concert,  at  which  Nevada  and 
Scalchi  were  both  to  appear.  Both  shammed  colds,  and  didn't  appear  ; 
but  it  was  very  good,  even  without  them,  although  Nellie  was  greatly  dis- 
appointed. 

* '  What  I  remember  that  we  saw  besides  was  the  Private  Secretary, 
at  Madison  Square  ;  Congress,  with  Raymond  in  it  ;  Love  on  Crutches, 
at  Daly's  ;  London  Assurance,  with  Lester  Wallack  himself  as  Dazzle  ; 
and  the  Actors'  Fund  Benefit,  with  one  act  of  five  different  plays,  the 
charm  of  which  was  Irving  and  Terry  in  the  trial  scene  of  The  Merchant 
of  Venice,  and  Jefferson  playing  the  whole  of  a  little  comedy  admira- 
bly. Cleveland,  the  President-elect,  was  in  the  box  immediately  oppo- 
site us.  Irving  went  into  Cleveland's  box  when  through,  and  saw  in  the 
next  (an  act  of  a  comic  opera)  a  burlesque  of  himself,  which  he  seemed 
to  enjoy. 

"  The  Christmas  shopping  in  New  York  is  all,  so  the  shopkeepers 
told  us,  for  cheap  things.  Streets  crowded,  but  aggregate  of  sales  small. 
We  were  like  the  rest.  We  *  retrenched,'  too  !  You  will  laugh  at  that 
after  our  long  and  expensive  trip  to  New  York,  which  seemed,  however, 
a  kind  of  necessity  for  us. 

"  We  eat  our  Christmas  dinner  here,  and  start  same  afternoon  at 
three  for  home,  which  Schuy  is  so  anxious  to  see,  not  having  been  there 
since  last  May.  He  spends  ten  days  there,  and  Sunday  night,  at  nine, 
after  New  Year's,  I  start  back  with  him  to  Rye.  He  has  three  days  at 
Easter,  and  we  have  planned  a  week's  visit  to  New  York  then,  including 
that  time.  We  have  given  up  our  anticipated  New  Orleans  and  Florida 
visit  in  March.  It  would  cost  a  great  deal  and  be  too  crowded  to  en- 
joy. Nellie  will  visit  here  and  at  Cleveland  instead.  Mrs. prom- 
ises to  visit  us  a  week  or  two  in  February.  Marcia  comes  the  week  after 
New  Year's  for  a  few  weeks  at  South  Bend.  Schuy  is  head  of  his  class 
in  Latin  and  arithmetic,  but  says  there  is  not  '  fan '  enough  at  the  Insti- 
tute. We  went  up  there  twice  while  in  New  York.  Love  to  O.  J.  and 
Elias.  Affectionately  your  loving  brother, 

"  SCHUYLER." 

The  next  day  Mrs.  Hollister  received  from  him  the  fol- 
lowing postal.  It  was  the  last  thing  she  received  from 
him,  and  was  characteristic  :  "  It  has  just  occurred  to 
Nellie  and  me  to  suggest  to  you  to  send  some  little  New 

Year's  card  to  ,  even  if  it  would  not  reach  her  by 

New  Year's.  They  fear  she  is  in  failing  health,  and  the 
remembrance  would  please  her.  Perhaps  you  have  thought 
of  it,  however,  yourself." 

The  holidays  are  passed,  the  new  year  has  begun, 
winter  holds  the  Northern  country  in  its  iciest  grasp,  when 


OUT  OF  OFFICE.  493 

suddenly  it  is  flashed  over  the  land  and  under  the  sea  that 
"  Schuyler  Coif  ax  is  dead."  A  kindly  face  seen  and  a 
cheery  voice  heard  for  half  a  century  in  all  the  walks  and 
ways  of  men  were  to  be  seen  and  heard  no  more.  People 
read  the  news  and  wept,  not  for  the  statesman  and  popu- 
lar leader,  but  for  the  genial  brother  and  loyal  friend. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

IN   MEMORIAM. 
1885. 

SCHUYLER  COLFAX  DlES  SUDDENLY  AT  MANKATO,  MlNN. — THE  SADDEST 

DAY  MANKATO  HAD  EVER  SEEN. — How  THE  ANNOUNCEMENT  WAS 
RECEIVED  BY  THE  COUNTRY. — THE  FUNERAL  TRAIN  FROM  MANKATO 
TO  SOUTH  BEND. — OBSEQUIES. — TRIBUTES  OF  His  BRETHREN  OF  THE 
FRATERNITY  OF  ODD  FELLOWS. — PRESS  NOTICES. — PERSONAL  TRIB- 
UTES.— "  THE  TRUE  VICTOR  ON  THE  BATTLE-FIELD  OF  LIFE." 

"  I  LEAVE  Monday  for  lecturing  in  North-western  Iowa," 
Colfax  wrote  the  South  Bend  Register,  "  under  engagements 
I  regretted  I  could  not  postpone  that  I  might  attend  the 
funeral  of  Mr.  Burroughs,  with  whom  for  nearly  half  a 
century  I  have  been  on  terms  of  closest  friendship."  Tues- 
day morning,  January  i3th,  1885,  he  arrived  at  Mankato, 
Minn.,  where  he  was  to  change  cars  for  his  destination — 
Rock  Rapids,  in  the  extreme  north-western  corner  of  Iowa. 
The  temperature  was  about  thirty  degrees  below  zero.  He 
walked  from  one  depot  to  the  other,  three  fourths  of  a 
mile.  Mr.  W.  R.  Severance,  the  station  agent,  wrote  Mrs. 
Colfax  : 

"  After  thanking  my  baggage-man  for  showing  him  the  waiting-room, 
Mr.  Colfax  passed  in,  laid  his  valise,  in  company  with  his  overcoat,  on  a 
bench,  rose  and  looked  at  a  map  on  the  wall,  sat  down  on  an  armed 
bench,  crossed  his  legs  in  an  easy  manner,  immediately  turned  very  pale  ; 
two  other  men  in  the  room  besides  myself  rushed  to  him  ;  he  simply 
threw  his  head  back,  raised  his  eyes  upward,  and  expired.  It  was  then 
fifteen  minutes  to  eleven. 

"  I  immediately  sent  for  Dr.  Warner,  leading  physician  here,  and,  in 
fact,  one  of  the  best  in  the  State.  He  arrived  within  five  minutes  after 
Mr.  Colfax  was  first  taken,  and  did  everything  in  his  power  to  resuscitate 
him  before  pronouncing  it  death.  Mr.  Colfax  died  very  calmly  ;  there 
was  no  pain,  no  struggle  whatever.  The  first  second  he  turned  white 
we  rushed  for  water  and  bathed  his  head,  and  also  used  spirits. 

"  I  dislike  very  much  to  write  these  little  incidents  to  you,  but  con- 


IN.  MEMORIAM.  495 

sider  it  proper  and  necessary  that  you  be  made  acquainted  with  them,  the 
true  facts,  inasmuch  as  the  papers  neglect  them  and  prevail  upon  it  that 
he  died  in  an  out-of-the-way  place  and  unattended.  Such  was  not  the 
case.  It  is  true,  he  passed  away  in  a  stranger's  arms,  but  I  assure  you 
that  intimate  friends  could  not  have  done  more  for  him  than  we  did.  I 
sincerely  hope  the  above  will  prove  consoling  in  your  great  bereavement." 

No  one  at  the  railroad  station  knew  Mr.  Colfax,  but 
upon  report  of  what  had  happened,  people  soon  arrived 
who  had  known  him,  and  letters  in  his  pockets  removed  all 
doubt.  A  coroner's  jury  decided  that  "deceased  came 
suddenly  to  his  death  from  causes  to  them  unknown." 
The  physicians  said  that  "  his  death  was  instantaneous, 
and  was  due  to  a  stoppage  of  the  heart's  action."  The 
Odd  Fellows,  heartily  seconded  by  the  citizens,  immedi- 
ately took  charge  of  the  body,  conveying  it  to  the  resi- 
dence of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Harrington.  It  was  placed  in  a 
casket,  and  lying  in  state,  the  people  of  Mankato  passed 
through  the  parlors  and  looked  upon  the  face,  which  had 
more  the  appearance  of  sleep  than  of  death.  Word  was 
telegraphed  to  Mrs.  Colfax  through  her  friends  at  South 
Bend,  to  the  President,  and  to  the  Associated  Press.  The 
President  acknowledged  the  message  with  an  expression  of 
"  deep  sorrow/'  From  South  Bend  came  the  request  to 
send  the  deceased  home  as  soon  as  possible.  All  the 
agencies  of  society  in  Mankato  were  busy  throughout  the 
afternoon  and  evening  preparing  for  a  proper  convey- 
ance of  the  remains  to  the  depot.  By  nine  o'clock  a  pro- 
cession, numbering  fifteen  hundred,  had  formed  at  Dr. 
Harrington's  residence  to  escort  the  hearse  and  pall-bear- 
ers through  the  intensely  frosty  night  to  the  special  car 
tendered  by  the  North-western  Railroad  Company.  Before 
setting  out,  brief  services  were  held,  all  the  clergy  of  the 
city  participating.  A  guard  of  honor,  Messrs.  L.  P.  Hunt, 
L.  Patterson,  H.  Himmelman,  and  B.  D.  Pay,  was  appointed 
to  accompany  the  casket  to  Chicago.  His  neighbors  who 
loved  him  could  not  have  rendered  these  services  with 
more  of  reverential  tenderness.  This  relieved  those  near- 
est him  of  part  of  the  pain  of  his  sudden  death  away  from 
home. 


496  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

It  fell  to  Mr.  Peter  E.  Studebaker  to  break  the  news  to 
Mrs.  Coif  ax.  When  she  appeared  in  the  parlor  in  answer 
to  his  call,  she  had  no  more  thought  that  she  was  a 
widow  than  when  she  stood  at  the  bridal  altar.  Mr.  Stude- 
baker asked  her  a  question  or  two — beating  about  the 
bush  :  Had  she  heard  from  Mr.  Colfax  since  he  left  home  ? 
Where  was  he  likely  to  be  this  morning,  in  Mankato  ? 
"  Yes,"  she  replied.  "  A  stranger  is  said  to  have  dropped 
dead  there  in  the  depot  this  morning,"  said  he.  Looking 
at  him  then  more  intently,  she  read  it  in  his  face — 
"  Schuyler  is  dead,"  said  she.  Fortunately,  it  takes  days 
and  weeks  to  realize  the  full  weight  and  meaning  of 
such  a  blow.  Mrs.  Colfax  is  a  woman  of  strong  will. 
After  a  little  time  she  was  able  to  talk  calmly  with 
friends  and  neighbors  who  gathered  in,  and  to  go  through 
that  distressing  week  and  the  weeks  following  with  be- 
coming fortitude.  Before  the  day  closed  she  was  receiv- 
ing telegrams  of  condolence  from  different  parts  of  the 
country,  and  these  were  followed  by  letters  of  the  same 
tenor,  General  Grant  writing  :  "  Mr.  Colfax  and  I  were 
warm  personal  friends  from  the  day  of  our  association  on 
the  same  ticket  for  the  highest  offices  in  the  gift  of  the 
nation  up  to  his  untimely  and  unexpected  death.  I  was 
always  his  defender  from  what  I  believed  to  be  most 
unjust  charges." 

Colfax  had  been  advised  that  he  had  heart  disease,  and 
sharp  spasms  of  pain  in  the  chest  had  admonished  him 
several  times  within  a  few  months  that  he  held  life  by  a 
frail  tenure.  He  had  settled  his  affairs  about  New  Year's, 
made  his  will,  appointed  executors,  and  had  dropped  some 
significant  hints  to  his  son,  his  wife's  brother,  and  intimate 
friends,  but  had  kept  it  from  his  wife,  knowing  the  intima- 
tion would  banish  the  sunshine  from  her  life.  Hence  his 
sudden  death  was  a  complete  surprise  to  her. 

The  unexpected  announcement  produced  a  painful 
shock  in  South  Bend.  The  South  Bend  Tribune  said  : 
"  Death  is  occurring  every  day  in  the  midst  of  us,  but 
never  has  his  shaft  struck  down  one  who  will  be  so  univer- 
sally mourned  in  this  city  as  Mr.  Colfax.  It  is  a  calamity 


IN   MEMORIAM.  497 

that  extends  from  his  own  loved  hearth-stone  to  all  others 
here,  and  to  thousands  throughout  the  country,  where  he 
was  known  so  well  in  his  old  public  and  late  private  life. 
All  will  sympathize  with  the  afflicted  wife  and  son,  and  the 
brother  and  three  sisters  in  their  far  Western  homes.  A 
more  loving  husband,  a  kinder  father,  or  a  more  gracious 
brother  was  never  lost  to  earth.  Noble  in  all  his  traits 
of  character,  cheerful  in  his  disposition,  carrying  sunshine 
and  gladness  wherever  he  went,  it  is  seldom  that  death 
finds  such  men  as  Mr.  Colfax  to  take  from  us." 

The  South  Bend  Register  :  "  The  most  distinguished  citi- 
zen of  South  Bend  is  dead.  Schuyler  Colfax  has  been 
called  to  his  fathers.  Suddenly  and  without  warning  he 
died  almost  a  stranger  and  alone,  far  away  from  those  who 
held  him  most  dear.  To  one  of  his  genial  and  affectionate 
nature  such  a  fate  was  farthest  from  his  desire,  but  he  was 
a  brave  knight,  clothed  in  the  armor  of  righteousness,  who 
feared  not  to  meet  the  common  foe  on  any  ground. 
Though  far  from  home,  and  in  an  obscure  part  of  a  distant 
State,  it  needed  only  the  mention  of  his  name  to  bring  to 
his  side,  though  too  late  to  keep  him  had  help  been  pos- 
sible, kind  hearts  and  willing  hands,  willing  to  pay  such 
tribute  as  they  might  to  all  that  was  earthly  of  one  who 
had  endeared  himself  to  the  American  people.  Wherever 
else  on  this  broad  continent  he  might  have  received  the 
summons,  it  would  have  been  the  same — such  was  the 
national  fame  of  the  man.  We  at  his  home  will  not  be 
alone  in  our  sorrow.  It  is  a  time  of  national  grief,  and 
from  the  nation  will  come  the  grandest  tribute  to  the  dead. 
South  Bend  has  lost  a  citizen  whose  particular  niche  can 
never  be  filled.  He  was  identified  with  the  city  and  county 
from  their  earliest  days,  and  was  foremost  in  promoting 
the  welfare  of  the  community  in  which  he  resided.  We 
mourn  him  as  a  man  and  a  citizen." 

The  Indiana  State  Journal :  "  As  a  public  man,  with  a 
national  scope  and  reputation  ;  as  an  honored  representa- 
tive of  Indiana  ;  as  a  citizen  devoted  to  the  city  in  which 
he  lived  ;  as  a  member  of  the  Christian  Church,  to  which 
he  gave  the  best  service  of  his  manhood  ;  as  a  son,  hus- 


498  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

band,  and  father,  the  purest,  tenderest,  and  most  loving  ; 
as  a  friend,  unselfish  and  untiring  ;  as  a  man,  true  and 
noble;  in  all  the  relations  of  life  without  reproach,  there 
will  be  profound  and  general  sorrow  everywhere  over  the 
announcement  of  his  death." 

The  Chicago  Tribune:  "The  telegraph  this  morning 
brings  the  mournful  intelligence  of  the  sudden  death  of  the 
Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax  at  Mankato,  Minn.  As  has  hap- 
pened to  so  many  other  of  our  prominent  men  of  late,  he 
passed  suddenly  away,  and  in  his  death  the  country  loses  a 
man  who  had  played  a  very  important  part  in  its  superior 
councils,  and  his  friends  a  genial  and  boon  companion  who 
had  become  endeared  to  them  by  many  personal  virtues." 

The  Chicago  Journal :  "  The  announcement  of  the  sud- 
den death  of  the  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax  has  been  received 
with  popular  sorrow.  Of  the  many  remarkable  men  who 
have  been  active  on  the  stage  of  public  life  in  this  country 
during  the  past  twenty-four  years  of  our  nation's  history, 
none  has  acquitted  himself  more  creditably  or  illustri- 
ously ;  none  has  to  a  greater  extent  commanded  popular 
respect  and  confidence  ;  none  has  exerted  a  better  or  a 
wider  personal  influence  than  Schuyler  Colfax." 

The  Chicago  Current :  "  The  sudden  death  of  Mr.  Col- 
fax has  shocked  more  people  than  any  mortuary  event  since 
the  death  of  Garfield.  He  lived,  after  1872,  the  life  of  a 
proud  and  upright  man  who  had  been  foully  accused.  Per- 
sonally, he  was  so  kind  a  man  that  friends  gathered  around 
him  in  unusual  numbers,  and  now,  in  every  State,  mourn 
him  with  sincere  sorrow." 

The  St.  Paul  Pioneer-Press  :  "  In  the  spontaneous  hon- 
ors of  affection  paid  the  dead  friend  of  the  martyred  Lin- 
coln by  the  city  of  Mankato,  the  public  feeling  of  the 
whole  State  will  sorrowfully  participate  ;  and  now  that  he 
is  gone,  the  nation  in  whose  councils  he  long  played  so 
honorable  a  part  will  award  him  the  justice  due  to  his 
whole  life  and  character." 

The  Indianapolis  Herald :  "  He  was  an  honor  to  himself 
and  friends,  and  the  State  may  well  take  pride  in  his  name 
and  character.  His  life  has  been  a  success,  and  the  world 


IN   MEMORIAM.  499 

has  been  made  better  by  the  fact  that  he  lived  and  worked 
in  it.  He  practised  charity,  forgave  his  enemies,  and 
loved  his  friends.  He  toiled  ceaselessly  unto  the  last,  and 
fell  asleep  by  the  way,  without  a  fear.  He  goes  to  his 
grave  mourned  by  a  nation,  and  loved  by  all  who  knew 
him." 

The  Indianapolis  Review :  "In  the  death  of  Schuyler 
Colfax,  one  of  the  central  figures  of  the  civil  forces  of  the 
war  in  the  North  is  removed  from  us.  No  public  man, 
perhaps,  was  as  close  to  Mr.  Lincoln  as  Mr.  Colfax  was, 
and  much  of  the  magnificent  administration  during  the 
war  period  was  due  to  his  counsel  and  advice." 

The  North-western  Christian  Advocate :  "  When  this  unex- 
pected news  came,  thousands  fell  into  shocked  bereave- 
ment. Legislatures  and  Congress  adjourned  out  of  re- 
spect ;  newspapers  teemed  with  tributes,  and  public  men, 
including  old  political  antagonists,  told  in  interviews  how 
much  they  believed  in  Schuyler  Colfax.  Years  ago  we 
went  down  to  South  Bend  to  witness  a  public  reception 
tendered  by  old  neighbors  to  their  Congressman  on  his 
return  home.  The  scene  lingers  in  our  memory  as  one  of 
the  most  unstudied,  sincere,  heartfelt  instances  of  personal 
and  loving  homage  ever  paid  to  an  honored  fellow-citizen 
and  neighbor.  Last  week  that  same  community  received 
the  remains  of  that  same  guest.  Tears  of  grief  flowed 
from  honest  eyes  which  years  ago  looked  love  into  the  face 
of  the  living.  The  death  of  this  great  man  of  the  people 
could  not  command  higher  tribute  than  did  his  presence  in 
the  body.  The  epitaph  of  1885  might  have  been  written  in 
1868,  and  his  tombstone  can  well  afford  to  tell  all  the  truth." 

The  announcement  called  forth  expressions  of  regret 
almost  everywhere,  and  of  profound  sorrow  where  he  was 
personally  well  known.  In  Washington,  although  few 
were  left  who  served  with  him  in  Congress,  he  was  spoken 
of  as  a  man  possessed  of  a  high  order  of  ability,  and 
whose  kindly  nature  drew  to  him  in  friendly  intimacy  even 
his  political  opponents.  The  House  and  the  Senate  ad- 
journed out  of  respect  to  his  memory.  In  moving  the 
adjournment  of  the  Senate,  Senator  Harrison  said  :  "  He 


500  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

was  greatly  endeared  to  the  people  of  his  own  State,  and 
was  especially  held  in  respect  and  confidence  by  the  people 
of  that  district  in  his  State  which  he  so  long  and  so  ably 
represented  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  held  this 
affection  and  this  confidence  unabated  to  the  hour  of  his 
death." 

Senator  John  Sherman  said  :  "  I  knew  him  well,  and 
can  say  of  him  that  he  was  generous,  social,  and  friendly 
with  every  one  ;  sagacious  and  able  in  the  management 
and  control  of  men  ;  industrious  always  in  everything  he 
undertook  ;  faithful  to  his  people  and  to  the  cause  which 
he  espoused  ;  a  good  husband  and  affectionate  father  ;  and 
true  always  to  his  country.  For  twenty  years  he  enjoyed 
the  full  measure  of  public  honors  ;  repeatedly  elected  by 
his  constituents,  and  three  times  honored  by  being  chosen 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  then  elected 
by  the  people  of  the  United  States  as  Vice-President.  He 
was  known  in  the  Senate  chiefly  as  its  presiding  officer. 
All  who  remember  him  here  will  bear  witness  to  his  im 
partial  courtesy.  I  wish  simply  to  add  my  word  of  kind- 
ness to  what  has  been  said  by  his  distinguished  Senator. 
My  respect,  confidence,  and  friendship  go  with  him  to  his 
grave.  Honor  to  his  memory.  Peace  and  happiness  in 
the  future  life  to  come." 

In  New  York  the  news  was  published  in  the  evening 
papers,  and  gray-haired  men  spoke  of  it  while  dining,  re- 
calling the  troublous  times  in  which  they  in  common  with 
the  dead  statesman  had  figured.  Politicians  paused  in 
their  discussion  of  State  politics  to  refer  with  regret  to  the 
sudden  demise  of  the  ex-Vice-President.  The  feeling  of 
sorrow  at  the  Union  League  Club  was  very  marked.  The 
dead  was  spoken  of  in  eulogistic  terms  and  with  enthusi- 
asm. General  Grant  was  silent  for  a  few  moments  on  re- 
ceiving the  intelligence  from  a  New  York  Herald  reporter, 
his  careworn  face  taking  on  an  additional  shade  of  sad- 
ness. "  I  knew  Mr.  Colfax  intimately,"  he  finally  said, 
slowly,  "  and  held  him  in  the  highest  esteem,  both  person- 
ally and  as  a  public  man.  I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  of  his 
death." 


IN   MEMORIAM.  5<DI 

At  Indianapolis  the  two  Houses  of  the  Legislature  ad- 
journed upon  receiving  the  intelligence.  The  next  even- 
ing, at  a  public  meeting  of  the  citizens,  Hon.  Thomas  A. 
Hendricks,  Vice-President-elect  of  the  United  States,  said  : 

"  It  seems  peculiarly  fitting  that  the  citizens  of  the  capital  of  his  State 
should  make  some  formal  expression  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  Mr. 
Colfax,  for  he  was  no  common  man  in  relation  to  the  affairs  of  the  coun- 
try. I  knew  him  first  in  1850,  when  we  were  both  members  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention.  It  was  there  that  I  formed,  and  I  think  I  may 
say  contracted,  a  friendship  which  continued  to  the  day  of  his  death.  At 
this  time  I  shall  not  attempt  any  lengthy  description  of  his  character.  I 
wish  simply  to  express  my  profound  sorrow  and  my  appreciation  of  the 
public  loss.  He  was  a  remarkably  successful  man,  and  I  think  that  to 
say  that  a  man  achieved  such  success  as  he  did  is  as  much  as  to  say  that 
he  was  a  man  of  great  ability.  Success  does  not  come  by  chance. 
When  he  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  he  was  re- 
garded as  a  scholar,  a  thinker,  and  a  string  and  excellent  writer.  Soon 
afterward  he  became  a  member  of  the  national  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  was  soon  recognized  there  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  his  party 
and  a  gentleman  of  decided  ability.  He  was  elected  Speaker  of  the 
House,  and  I  think  no  other  man  ever  succeeded  in  giving  such  general 
satisfaction  in  that  position  as  did  Mr.  Colfax.  There  have  been  greater 
Speakers,  greater  men  in  the  Chair,  but  he  gave  to  the  body  a  unity  of 
thought  and  purpose  which  was  remarkable.  He  was  afterward  called 
upon  to  preside  over  the  United  States  Senate,  the  second  position  in 
the  Government,  and  he  gave  equal  satisfaction  there.  I  think  I  can 
truthfully  say  that  in  all  the  positions  which  he  was  called  upon  to  fill, 
he  succeeded  entirely.  He  succeeded  because  he  brought  to  the  support 
of  natural  ability  the  aid  of  thorough  training.  Mr.  Colfax  was  a  great 
and  good  man.  I  respected  him  when  he  lived,  and  I  lament  him  since 
he  is  dead." 

The  Hon.  W.  H.  Calkins  said  : 

"  I  first  knew  Mr.  Colfax  in  1856,  when  he  was  making  his  second 
race  for  Congress  in  the  Ninth  District.  He  was  both  my  political  and 
personal  friend.  For  many  years  I  lived  in  an  adjoining  county,  and  I 
knew  him  as  familiarly  and  well  as  any  man  in  the  State.  His  Con- 
gressional career  was  marked  by  indefatigable  industry  and  the  closest 
attention  to  the  interests  of  his  constituents.  He  never  allowed  a  private 
letter  to  go  unanswered  or  public  business  unattended  to.  During  the 
fourteen  years  he  represented  that  district  in  Congress  he  had  a  remark- 
able hold  on  his  patty  friends,  and  he  enjoyed  the  most  profound  respect 
of  even  his  political  opponents.  I  need  not  speak  of  his  public  record. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  he  filled  many  prominent  positions  in  the  service 


502  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

of  his  country,  and  he  filled  them  well.  He  was  identified  with  many 
measures  that  will  last  as  long  as  the  Republic  stands.  When  he  left 
public  life,  he  adhered  so  strictly  to  his  resolution  to  remain  a  private  citi- 
zen, that  I  have  often  heard  him  say  he  declined  to  interfere  in  requests 
for  advancement  or  preferment,  even  when  made  by  his  dearest  friends. 
I  need  not  give  the  reasons  for  this,  but  the  impartial  pen  of  the  truthful 
historian  will  say  that  his  motives  were  always  honorable.  As  a  hus- 
band and  father  he  was  kind,  considerate,  and  loving  ;  as  a  citizen  he 
was  charitable,  public-spirited,  and  enterprising.  He  did  not  escape  cal- 
umny, it  is  true,  but  that  he  was  guiltless  of  the  charges  made  I  firmly 
believe." 

Ex-Governor  Andrew  G.  Porter  said  : 

"  I  was  in  Congress  four  years  with  Mr.  Coif  ax,  and  for  the  greater 
part  of  that  time  I  boarded  at  the  same  house  with  him,  and  I  think  that 
I  understood  his  character.  It  might  be  said  that  he  started  out  in  life 
under  great  disadvantages,  because  he  was  the  son  of  a  widow,  and  was 
poor  and  friendless  ;  but  I  think  .that  he  had  very  great  advantages  in  the 
shape  of  kindly  feelings,  sincere  respect  for  the  people,  particularly  the 
poor  people,  and  a  strong  faith  in  the  right  as  he  understood  it.  He  be- 
lieved firmly  that  the  right,  though  baffled  in  the  start,  would  triumph  in 
the  end.  I  never  knew  a  man  of  such  a  sweet  social  nature — who  so  loved 
his  fellow-men.  He  seemed  to  live  to  do  kindness  to  them,  and  in  this 
he  knew  no  party  or  faction.  He  was  universally  popular  at  Washing- 
ton. He  was  a  man  of  prodigious  industry,  and  his  only  recreation  was 
in  chahging  from  one  kind  of  labor  to  another.  He  arose  early,  and 
spent  the  morning  around  the  various  departments,  learning  all  the  details 
of  the  work  of  each.  He  literally  knew  everything  about  Washington, 
and  it  was  this  that  brought  him  so  near  Mr.  Lincoln,  for  he  was  of  great 
assistance  to  him.  The  President's  door  was  always  open  to  him— not 
his  office-door  alone,  but  that  of  his  private  apartments.  He  was  also 
very  intimate  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  family,  and  they  loved  him  as  they 
loved  but  few  others.  He  bore  no  malice  toward  his  fellow-men.  He 
told  me  once  that  he  believed  true  happiness  could  only  come  to  a  person 
through  the  happiness  of  others.  That  was  the  secret  of  his  life." 

Brief  remarks  of  a  similar  character  were  made  by  Rep- 
resentative Smith,  of  Tippecanoe  County  ;  by  E.  W.  Hal- 
ford,  Charles  Drapier,  and  other  gentlemen  ;  and  the  meet- 
ing adjourned  after  appointing  Messrs.  Andrew  G.  Porter, 
Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  William  H.  Calkins,  David  Turpie, 
and  E.  W.  Halford  a  committee  to  draw  up  a  suitable 
memorial  to  Mr.  Colfax.  Following  is  the  memorial  : 

"  The  citizens  of  Indiana  assembled  at  the  capital  have  heard,  with 
extreme  regret,  of  the  decease  of  Hon.  Schuyler  Cotfax,  one  of  the  State's 


IN   MEMORIAM.  503 

most  esteemed  and  distinguished  citizens.  In  a  career  of  long,  useful, 
and  eminent  public  service,  Mr.  Colfax  shed  lustre  on  the  name  of  the 
State,  and  won  honorable  fame  in  the  nation.  Beginning  life  without  any 
of  the  adventitious  aids  that  are  commonly  supposed  to  assist  in  achieving 
fame,  he  rose  to  distinction  by  means  of  natural  talents,  a  most  genial 
temper,  and  a  life  of  unremitting  application  to  every  work  he  took  in 
hand.  As  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  this  State,  as  a 
Representative  in  Congress,  as  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States,  he  proved  himself  well  equipped  for  every  duty,  and 
in  each  successive  place  he  added  to  his  previous  distinction.  He  was  a 
man  of  a  fine  social  nature,  of  fervent  friendships,  of  tender  sympathies, 
and  was  singularly  free  from  vindictiveness  and  resentments.  Meeting 
as  fellow-citizens  and  friends  of  the  dead  statesman,  it  is  resolved  : 

"  i.  That  we  shall  ever  hold  his  memory  and  his  public  services  in 
sincere  regard. 

"  2.  That  we  tender  to  his  family  in  their  great  affliction  our  most 
sincere  and  fervent  sympathy." 

The  funeral  train  left  Mankato  at  midnight  of  Tuesday, 
ran  through  Wisconsin  Wednesday,  and  entered  Chicago 
about  seven  in  the  evening,  "as  if  hurled  suddenly  into 
the  city  out  of  the  arctic  regions,"  covered  with  snow  and 
ice.  The  funeral  car  was  appropriately  draped,  and  bore 
on  each  side  the  inscription  : 

SCHUYLER  COLFAX, 

EX-VlCE-PRESIDENT, 

Died  at  Mankato,  Minn.,  January  I3th,  1885. 
The  Nation  Mourns. 

The  symbols  of  Odd  Fellowship  were  engraved  on  silver 
plates  inlaid  in  the  cover  of  the  casket,  also  the  inscription, 
"  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord."  Over  the 
casket  was  thrown  the  silken  banner  of  the  Mankato  (Alex- 
ander Wilkins)  Post  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 
and  on  this  rested  the  regalia  of  the  Order. 

A  committee  of  South  Bend  Lodge  No.  29,  I.  O.  O.  F. , 
to  which  Colfax  had  belonged  thirty-nine  years,  and  a  dele- 
gation of  leading  citizens  arrived  in  Chicago  at  about  the 
same  hour  as  the  funeral  train.  In  company  with  repre- 
sentative Odd  Fellows  of  Illinois,  members  of  the  Veteran 
Union  Club,  citizens  and  ladies,  the  South  Bend  people 


504  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

assembled  at  the  depot  as  the  train  pulled  in,  formed  in 
double  line,  and  uncovered  as  the  casket  was  borne  down 
the  platform  and  through  the  depot  to  a  hearse  in  waiting. 
The  bearers  were  old  soldiers  and  prominent  Odd  Fellows. 
The  evening  was  extremely  cold,  the  air  was  full  of  falling 
snow,  whirled  about  in  blinding  gusts  by  a  high  wind. 
Five  or  six  hundred  people  formed  and  marched  in  proces- 
sion from  the  North-western  to  the  Lake  Shore  depot,  where 
a  special  train  for  South  Bend  waited.  There  were  no 
speeches,  no  flowers,  no  demonstrations.  The  casket  was 
placed  on  the  train,  the  Chicago  friends  passed  through 
the  car  and  looked  their  last  upon  him,  and  then  stood, 
with  uncovered  heads,  on  the  platform  while  the  train 
slowly  drew  out  of  the  depot,  carrying  the  South  Bend 
delegations  with  their  dead.  The  Mankato  escort  went  on 
with  them,  and  they  were  joined  by  more  of  the  Fraternity 
at  La  Porte. 

At  the  South  -Bend  depot  many  Odd  Fellows  and  citi- 
zens were  waiting.  They  accompanied  the  procession  to 
the  family  residence,  where  it  arrived  a  little  before  mid- 
night. The  casket  was  placed  in  the  parlor,  opening  through 
folding  doors  into  the  library,  where  Mr.  Colfax  when  at 
home  had  passed  most  of  his  time.  There  was  his  desk,  piled 
high  with  papers,  where  he  had  written  a  hundred  thou- 
sand letters,  grave  or  gay.  There  was  the  rack  of  pigeon- 
holes above  the  desk,  packed  full  ;  there  was  the  chair  at 
the  end  of  the  desk,  loaded  with  papers  ;  books  lined  three 
sides  of  the  room  from  floor  to  ceiling — everything  was 
precisely  as  he  had  left  it  Monday  morning.  The  casket 
was  uncovered,  the  face  still  resembled  that  of  a  sleeper. 
His  son  Schuyler  arrived  from  school  the  next  day.  The 
funeral  was  set  for  Saturday. 

Meanwhile,  both  Houses  of  the  State  Legislature  ap- 
pointed committees  to  represent  them  officially  at  the 
funeral.  Many  of  the  leading  men  at  the  capital  arranged 
to  be  present.  Grand  Master  Wildman  issued  a  proclama- 
tion calling  on  the  Brotherhood  of  Odd  Fellows  through- 
out the  State  "  to  unite,  as  far  as  practicable,  in  paying  a 
last  tribute  to  the  memory  of  our  dearly  beloved  brother." 


IN;  MEMORIAM.  505 

The  flags  on  the  Department  buildings  at  Washington  were 
placed  at  half-mast  by  order  of  the  President.  The  ob- 
sequies were  in  charge  of  the  Odd  Fellows.  The  day  was 
one  of  the  stormiest  ever  known  in  the  town.  The  snow 
was  deep,  and  drifted  ;  two  feet  of  fresh  snow  fell  during 
the  day  ;  the  wind  was  high,  and  the  mercury  standing 
eleven  above  in  the  morning,  sank  to  three  degrees  below 
zero  by  night.  Trains  were  blocked,  detaining  those  who 
had  set  out,  and  deterring  thousands  from  starting.  It 
was  impossible  to  get  about  in  such  weather.  Of  the  rela- 
tives in  the  far  West,  only  Mrs.  Witter  was  able  to  reach 
South  Bend  in  time.  Business  was  entirely  suspended. 
The  principal  buildings,  so  often  decorated  for  Colfax  liv- 
ing, were  dressed  in  mourning  for  Colfax  dead.  From 
eight  to  twelve  the  doors  of  the  family  residence  were 
thrown  open.  Thousands  passed  through  and  took  a  last 
look  of  the  beloved  face.  Two  hours  after  noon  the  re- 
mains were  conveyed  to  the  First  Reformed  Church.  On 
the  casket,  which  had  been  changed  since  the  arrival  of 
the  body  from  Minnesota,  rested  the  regalia  and  equip- 
ments of  the  deceased,  and  the  American  flag  fell  from  it 
in  graceful  folds. 

The  pall-bearers  were  Messrs.  James  Oliver  and  Clement 
Studebaker  on  the  part  of  South  Bend  ;  Joshua  D.  Miller, 
of  Mr.  Colfax's  lodge  ;  Theodore  P.  Haughey,  of  Indian- 
apolis, and  Thomas  Underwood,  of  Lafayette,  representing 
the  Grand  Lodge  and  the  Grand  Encampment  of  the 
State  of  Indiana  ;  and  the  Hon.  Mark  L.  McClelland,  of 
Valparaiso,  on  the  part  of  the  Legislature.  The  other 
gentlemen  representing  the  Legislature  were  unable  to 
reach  South  Bend  on  account  of  the  storm.  It  had  been 
arranged  that  Vice-President-elect  Thomas  A.  Hendricks, 
ex-Governor  Andrew  G.  Porter,  Governor  Isaac  P.  Gray, 
Judge  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  ex-Senator  Joseph  E.  McDon- 
ald, and  ex-Representative  William  H.  Calkins  should 
precede  the  body  as  honorary  pall-bearers  ;  but  their  train 
could  not  get  through  till  evening. 

The  services  at  the  church  were  conducted  by  the  pas- 
tor, the  Rev.  N.  D.  Williamson,  assisted  by  the  Rev.  W. 


506  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

H.  Hickman,  pastor  of  the  First  Methodist-Episcopal 
Church  ;  by  the  Rev.  W.  C.  Learned,  pastor  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church  ;  and  the  Rev.  E.  W.  Bower,  pastor  of  the 
Christian  Church.  Mr.  Williamson  delivered  the  funeral 
discourse  from  Daniel  10  :  41 — "  A  man  greatly  beloved." 
In  allusion  to  the  public  career  of  the  deceased,  he  said  : 

"  We  are  not  about  to  attempt  the  portraiture  of  a  perfect  man. 
Schuyler  Colfax  was  a  man,  and  so  imperfect.  He  was  a  thoroughly 
manly  man,  and  so  realized  and  deplored  his  imperfections,  and  de- 
pended on  the  atonement  of  Jesus  Christ  for  their  forgiveness,  and  on  the 
grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  their  removal.  And  here,  once  for  all,  I 
will  say  in  reference  to  the  only,  but  grave  attack  made  on  his  integrity — 
which  was  in  the  matter  of  the  Credit  Mobilier — that  he  was  serenely  and 
thoroughly  conscious  of  his  perfect  integrity  before  God  and  man  ;  and 
that  my  knowledge  of  the  facts  is  such  as  to  make  me  absolutely  sure  that 
when  the  secrets  of  men  are  revealed  in  the  blaze  of  God's  holiness  on 
the  great  Day  of  Judgment,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Great  Judge  knows  it 
to  be  so.  Another  of  his  innocent  fellow-sufferers,  the  sainted  Garfield, 
who  fell  by  the  bullet  of  the  assassin,  Guiteau,  in  the  railroad  depot  in 
Washington,  as  he  fell  by  the  kindlier  arrow  of  disease,  in  the  railroad 
depot  at  Mankato,  said  to  him  in  words  that  I  feel  free  to  repeat  since 
they  are  both  dead  :  '  Mr.  Colfax,  my  first  thought  after  my  nomination 
to  the  Presidency  in  Chicago  was  of  you.'  They  are  now  rejoicing  to- 
gether in  a  blessed  country,  where  the  Satan  of  calumny  can  never  reach 
them  ;  and  where  '  they  have  washed  their  robes  '  from  all  actual  sins 
and  imperfections,  and  '  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.'  " 

Mentioning  some  of  the  personal  characteristics  that 
made  him  "  a  man  greatly  beloved,"  Mr.  Williamson  said 
"  he  was  a  genial  man."  His  nature  was  kindly,  and  he 
had  a  rare  gift  of  utterance,  whether  of  speech  or  pen — 
felicitous,  often  exquisite.  His  large  knowledge  of  men 
and  events,  combined  with  his  geniality  and  facility  of 
expression,  made  him  a  remarkably  entertaining  conversa- 
tionalist. "  A  man  of  unswerving  principle."  Whatever 
position  he  took,  political,  moral,  religious,  was  taken  with 
full  knowledge  of  its  bearings,  and  adhered  to  without  fal- 
tering. "A  generous  man."  His  benefactions  were 
large,  widespread,  thoughtful,  ingeniously  and  delicately 
bestowed.  He  was  generous  to  the  Church,  generous  to 
opponents  :  many  of  his  political  opponents  were  his  warm, 
personal  friends.  "  A  versatile  man."  He  was  equally  at 


IN   MEMORIAM.  507 

home  in  the  Senate,  the  counting-room,  the  editor's  chair, 
the  Sunday  or  day-school,  among  the  farmers  and  the  man- 
ufacturers, before  the  literary  societies,  the  preachers,  and 
teachers.  His  perception  was  sun-like,  his  judgment  light- 
ning-like and  infallible.  His  mind  was  a  many-sided 
prism,  every  side  of  it  clean-cut,  instantly  catching,  divid- 
ing, and  distributing  the  rays  of  light,  as  required  by  any 
case  or  on  any  occasion.  "  A  studious  man."  His  mind 
was  full  of  facts,  things,  thoughts,  gathered  from  books, 
from  men,  and  by  observation  ;  and  when  he  brought 
them  forth,  they  had  been  thoroughly  assimilated.  He  was 
a  great  student  of  the  Book  of  Books.  "  A  busy  man." 
Witness  what  he  accomplished — his  public  services,  the 
innumerable  private  letters  he  wrote,  the  lectures  he  de- 
livered, the  miles  he  travelled — it  must  have  been  hundreds 
of  thousands — and  many  of  them  were  travelled  that  he 
might  keep  the  Sabbath  at  home  and  be  in  his  place  in  the 
sanctuary.  "  An  honored  man."  Honored  by  the  people 
—by  the  people  of  his  town,  of  his  county,  of  his  district, 
of  his  State,  of  his  nation  ;  by  election  to  office  from  boy- 
hood ;  by  counties  and  towns  named  after  him  in  many 
States  ;  by  the  esteem  and  attachment  of  a  very  great  host 
of  acquaintances.  "  A  useful  man."  His  speeches  and 
newspaper  articles  were  distributed  by  the  hundreds  of 
thousands.  He  rendered  great  service  in  securing  the  first 
Pacific  railroad.  His  political  services  to  the  cause  of  free- 
dom and  of  national  preservation  were  immeasurable. 
His  lecture  on  the  life  and  character  of  Lincoln,  repeated 
hundreds  of  times — who  can  estimate  its  influence  in  stim- 
ulating love  of  country  ?  He  was  useful  to  the  city  of  his 
adoption  in  many  ways  ;  his  services  were  always  at  the 
call  of  all  good  causes  ;  and  no  one  could  render  more 
efficient  service.  "  An  eloquent  man."  His  speech  was  a 
rapid  flow  of  happily-expressed  thought,  argument,  fact, 
and  sentiment,  which  carried  his  audience  irresistibly 
along  with  him.  He  was  often  eloquent.  Speaking  on 
Odd  Fellowship  was  one  of  his  specialties,"  and  I  must 
confess,"  said  the  genial  pastor,  "  that  the  wonderful  care, 
kindness,  and  heartiness  of  Odd  Fellowship  in  behalf  of 


508  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

Schuyler  Colfax,  dead,  has  given  me  a  better  insight  into 
the  reason  of  the  enthusiasm  for  Odd  Fellowship  of  Schuyler 
Colfax,  living.  From  the  bottom  of  my  heart  I  thank  you 
all — Daughters  of  Rebekah,  and  Odd  Fellows  of  every  de- 
gree, in  Chicago,  Indianapolis,  South  Bend,  and  surround- 
ing cities  and  towns,  and  especially  in  Mankato— for  all 
you  have  done  for  the  illustrious  dead,  and,  through  him, 
for  us  who  stand  nearest  to  him.  May  the  benediction  of 
the  Great  Father,  Saviour,  and  Sanctifier  rest  on  each  and 
all  of  you,  personally  !" 

"My  personal  feelings,"  said  the  speaker,  "  urge  me 
to  enlarge  on  his  purity,  piety,  and  warm  affection  for 
those  nearest  him.  But  on  these  sacred  themes  there  is  a 
happy  unanimity  in  all  the  public  and  private  utterances 
of  press  and  people  all  over  the  land."  Alluding,  then,  to 
his  last  journey  and  its  strange  outcome — the  meeting  of 
the  warm-hearted  man  and  the  arctic  wave,  the  song  of 
the  angels — 

"  Prisoner,  long  detained  below, 

Prisoner,  now  with  freedom  blest, 
Welcome  from  a  world  of  woe, 
Welcome  to  a  land  of  rest  ;' ' 

invoking  the  choicest  blessings  on  the  Odd  Fellows  and 
citizens  of  Mankato  ;  thanking  all  who  had  been  free  in 
kindly  offices  ;  the  body  of  Schuyler  Colfax,  he  said, 
would  now  be  borne  by  honorable  men  to  its  burial,  while 
universal  symbols  of  mourning  showed  South  Bend's  sym- 
pathies with  the  bereaved,  and  how  deeply  the  town  felt 
its  own  bereavement.  He  closed  :  "  Farewell  !  noble 
man,  parishioner,  and  Christian  friend,  whose  heart  has 
been  so  true,  and  whose  lips  have  never  uttered  one  unkind 
word,  but  have  spoken  so  many  words  of  cheer — farewell, 
until  we  meet  in  the  land  of  the  ransomed,  where  the  God 
of  mercy  grant  that  you  may  by  and  by  have  all  your  own 
family  with  you,  an  unbroken  band,  that  we  may  together 
praise  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  for- 
ever and  ever/'  1 

1.  Several  editions  of  Mr.  Williamson's  sermon  were  published  in  the  newspapers.   A 
pamphlet  edition  was  issued  by  "  The  Vincennes  Gallery  of  Fine  Arts,"  Chicago,  in 


IN  MEMORIAM.  509 

The  First  Presbyterian  Church  was  the  scene  of  services 
of  a  somewhat  more  popular  character,  conducted  by  the 
pastor,  the  Rev.  George  T.  Keller,  and  participated  in  by 
the  Rev.  J.  H.  Wilson,  pastor  of  the  Milburn  Memorial 
Chapel,  and  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Bower,  pastor  of  the  Michigan 
Street  Methodist- Episcopal  Church.  The  building  was 
crowded,  notwithstanding  the  blinding  snow-storm.  The 
basement  of  the  First  Methodist  Church  was  opened  and 
warmed  to  shelter  the  throngs  who  could  not  get  into  the 
churches,  and  who  were  nearly  perishing  with  the  cold. 

The  services  had  been  postponed  to  a  late  hour,  in  hope 
of  the  arrival  of  in-coming  trains,  and  it  was  sundown 
when  the  procession  formed  on  Lafayette  Street,  moved  up 
Washington  Street,  and  turned  into  the  cemetery,  where 
many  people  had  already  gathered.  While  the  biting  wind 
blew  hard,  and  the  shades  of  night  drew  on,  the  remains 
were  lowered  into  the  vault,  lined  with  evergreens  and 
flowers,  in  the  family  lot.  Chaplain  J.  H.  Wilson  con- 
ducted the  services  at  the  cemetery,  which  were  shortened 
on  account  of  the  cold.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Williamson  pro- 
nounced the  benediction,  and  the  gathering  dispersed. 

The  South  Bend  Times  (Democratic)  said  : 

"  To-day  is  laid  to  rest  the  mortal  remains  of  South  Bend's  most  em- 
inent and  honored  citizen,  one  of  Indiana's  most  illustrious  sons,  one  of 
the  nation's  most  honored  statesmen.  Of  his  remains  it  may  be  said, 
'  Ashes  to  ashes  ;  '  of  that  cold,  lifeless  body  it  may  be  said,  '  Dust  to 
dust,'  as  it  is  consigned  to  the  cold,  damp  earth  ;  but  from  our  memories 
— from  the  memories  of  all  who  had  the  pleasure  of  the  acquaintance  of 
that  genial,  whole-souled,  public-spirited  man,  for  whom  an  entire  people 
mourn  —from  their  remembrance  can  never  be  effaced  the  recollection 
of  that  grand  man  who  is  so  cold,  so  silent  now.  Beginning  in  obscurity, 
he  gained  a  high  place  among  his  fellow-men  ;  starting  from  the  humblest 
sphere  in  life,  we  find  him  occupying  with  marked  ability  the  next  to  the 
highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  nation  ;  and  then,  retiring  from  public 
life,  we  find  him  still  maintaining  a  high  position  in  the  estimation  of  the 
people.  Though  a  stanch  Republican,  he  laid  partisanship  aside  as  a 
citizen,  and  reckoned  his  friends  inside  and  outside  of  his  party  lines. 
Public-spirited,  of  generous  impulse  and  deed,  and  of  a  most  companion- 
able disposition,  it  cannot  be  wondered  at  that  he  held  so  warm  a  place 

memory  of  Mr.  Colfax's  purchase  of  the  first  great  picture  of  the  late  Henry  A.  Elkins, 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  gallery.    A  bust  of  Mr.  Colfax  is  to  be  placed  in  the  gallery. 


510  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

in  our  hearts.  He  may  have  made  mistakes  ;  let  them  be  buried  with 
him  ;  and  let  us  keep  green  in  our  memories  the  honored  dead  for  the 
estimable  qualities  that  crowned  a  noble  life." 

The  South  Bend  Tribune  said  :  "  This  day  will  long  be 
remembered,  not  only  for  its  funeral  appearance,  in  spite 
of  the  mantle  of  snow  which  covered  the  earth,  but  as  one 
on  which  the  whole  people,  irrespective  of  class,  condition, 
or  political  preference,  bowed  their  heads  under  a  great 
bereavement,  as  though  each  particular  house  had  been 
invaded  by  death.  There  was  no  pageant  of  grief,  but  the 
tokens  of  private  sorrow  were  many  and  touching.  Than 
such  a  tribute,  there  could  be  no  higher  eulogy.  His  body 
has  been  consigned  to  the  tomb,  but  his  words  and  deeds 
will  live  forever/' 

Eulogistic  resolutions  were  passed  by  the  Consistory  of 
the  First  Reformed  Church,  by  the  lodges  and  encamp- 
ments of  the  Odd  Fellows  of  South  Bend,  and  by  the  City 
Council.1  Notice  of  their  loss  was  taken  by  hundreds  of 
the  local  bodies  of  the  Order  of  Odd  Fellows.  In  many  of 
the  towns  of  Indiana  the  Fraternity  joined  in  memorial 
services,  at  which  his  brethren  paid  touching  tributes  to  the 
life  and  character  of  the  deceased.  At  New  Albany 
Brother  Lewis  Russell  said  :  "  To  raise  one's  self  from  the 
humblest  walks  of  life  to  the  second  place  in  the  gift  of 
the  nation  is  a  grand  achievement  ;  to  raise  one's  self  to 
the  highest  place  in  the  hearts  of  five  hundred  thousand 
Odd  Fellows  is  a  grander  achievement.  The  first  position 
may  be  filled  by  a  man  whose  character  it  would  not  be 
well  to  emulate  ;  the  second  position  can  be  filled  only  by 
a  good  and  true  man.  Brother  Colfax  has  filled  the  first  ; 
the  second  he  fills  to-day  and  forever." 

Brother  W.  C.  De  Pauw  said  :  "  Colfax  was  a  man  of 
convictions.  He  did  not  ask,  'Is  it  policy?'  but  'Is  it 
right  ?'  That  settled,  his  position  was  irrevocably  taken. 
There  were  four  great  questions  before  the  people  when  he 
was  young — slavery,  education,  temperance,  secret  socie- 
ties. He  took  the  right  side  of  them  all.  When  he  left 

1.  Mrs.  Colfax  has  received  copies,  beautifully  engrossed,  of  many  resolutions  of  con- 
dolence, adopted  by  societies  and  civic  and  religious  bodies. 


IN   MEMORIAM.  511 

politics,  it  was  with  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart  and 
'  poor  as  a  church  mouse  ; '  but  by  his  ready  pen,  a  keen 
brain,  and  indefatigable  energy  he  soon  acquired  a  com- 
petence." 

At  Terre  Haute  Brother  James  Hook  said  :  "  In  the 
demise  of  Schuyler  Colfax  the  nation  mourns  the  loss  of  a 
statesman,  our  State  a  valued  and  honored  citizen,  and 
our  Order  one  of  its  early  advocates  and  faithful  represen- 
tatives— true  to  every  trust." 

Colonel  W.  E.  McLean  said  :  "  Brother  Colfax  is  a 
model  worthy  of  imitation — in  his  exemplary  and  temper- 
ate life,  in  his  active  and  untiring  industry,  in  his  sincere 
respect  for  his  fellow-men  of  all  classes,  rich  and  poor  ;  a 
man  full  of  the  kindliest  attributes  of  a  sweet  social  nature  ; 
one  who  cpuld  say  with  Abou  Ben  Adhem,  to  the  angel, 
cheerily  :  '  I  pray  thee,  then,  write  me  as  one  who  loves 
his  fellow-men.'  " 

Colonel  R.  W.  Thompson  said  :  "  Among  all  the  public 
men  of  the  country  for  the  past  half  century,  there  was  not 
one  who  performed  his  duties  more  conscientiously  and 
faithfully  than  he.  He  was  generous  in  his  impulses  and 
honest  and  honorable  in  all  his  intentions.  There  have 
not  been  many  men  in  the  country's  history  who  have  oc- 
cupied in  such  a  brief  life  so  many  places  of  eminent  re- 
sponsibility as  he." 

Colonel  Nelson  said  :  "  There  never  was  a  more  loyal, 
honest,  and  capable  public  servant.  Few  men  were  as 
universally  beloved.  He  was,  indeed,  a  most  genial  and 
cultivated  gentleman,  who  recognized  the  absolute  and  uni- 
versal brotherhood  of  man.  He  was  a  strong  partisan,  it 
is  true,  but  he  always  treated  his  opponents  with  fairness 
and  courtesy.  His  aims  were  lofty,  his  methods  honor- 
able, his  heart  warm  and  true.  He  never  willingly  wounded 
the  feelings  of  any  human  being.  He  was  the  friend  of 
the  friendless  and  the  champion  of  the  oppressed.  As  a 
great  American  statesman  and  patriot,  as  a  useful  and  up- 
right citizen,  as  a  consistent  and  devout  Christian,  as  a 
loving  son,  husband,  and  father,  as  a  noble,  faithful,  hon- 
est man, 


512  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

1  History  will  write  his  honored  name 
High  on  her  truth-illumined  scroll.'  " 

Interesting  memorial  exercises  were  held  at  the  spring 
convocation  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  his  State.  A  memorial 
was  prepared  by  a  committee,  and  upon  the  motion  to 
adopt,  several  gentlemen  briefly  addressed  the  lodge. 
Some  of  the  more  striking  utterances  follow.  Brother 
Thomas  Underwood  said  :  ' '  For  more  than  threescore  years 
he  lived  and  faithfully  labored,  was  a  blessing  to  the 
world,  a  benefactor. of  his  fellow-men,  and  dying,  left  those 
around  the  firesides  of  a  nation  to  mourn  his  loss.  More 
than  half  of  his  life  I  knew  him  well,  and  loved  him  with 
the  strong  affection  of  a  brother's  love.  He  dared  to  do 
right,  no  matter  where  or  before  whom  he  stood.  His 
name  was  the  synonym  of  truthfulness.  There  are  those 
of  us  who  have  often  seen  the  shadow  of  sadness  settle 
upon  his  countenance  when  a  wrong  had  been  perpetrated 
on  himself  or  others  ;  but  none  of  us  ever  heard  his  lips 
speak  harshly,  but  only  sorrowfully,  that  the  wrong  had 
been  committed.  His  love  for  his  fellow-men  was  so 
strong  and  abiding,  that  it  forbade  harsh  action,  no  matter 
what  the  circumstances." 

Brother  Will  Cumback  :  "  Schuyler  Colfax  was  not 
only  my  brother  Odd  Fellow,  but  for  more  .than  thirty 
years  has  been  my  warm,  personal  friend.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  speak  of  his  integrity,  his  ability,  his  fine  social 
qualities,  his  broad  and  noble  manhood.  They  are  all  well 
known  to  the  whole  American  people.  I  do  not  believe 
that  in  our  history,  as  a  nation,  there  has  ever  been  a  man 
who  was  personally  known  by  as  many  people,  and  who 
had  as  many  warm  and  earnest  friends,  as  our  deceased 
brother.  ...  As  we  stand  closer  together,  and  attempt 
to  fill  up  the  vacant  places  that  death  makes  in  our  ranks, 
with  bowed  heads,  mingling  our  tears,  moved  by  a  com- 
mon grief,  let  us  hope  that  a  deeper  fraternal  feeling  may 
permeate  our  fellowship,  and  that  a  higher  type  of  man- 
hood may  be  the  fruitage  of  our  bereavement.  We  have 
the  noble  life  of  Colfax  to  guide  us.  Let  the  mantle  of 
the  departed  fall  on  each  of  us/' 


IN   MEMORIAM.  513 

'Brother  W.  R.  Myers,  Democratic  ex-member  of  Con- 
gress, now  Secretary  of  the  State  of  Indiana  : 

"  In  the  drama  of  life,  in  which  he  played  so  conspicuous  apart,  he  ac- 
quitted himself  in  a  manner  that  satisfied  his  most  critical  and  zealous 
friends  and  silenced  the  envious  tongues  of  his  enemies.  He  was  not  a 
profound  thinker  on  any  subject,  but  he  forced  himself  to  the  front  rank 
among  men  by  reason  of  the  versatility  of  his  mind  and  his  quick  percep- 
tion of  situations  as  they  presented  themselves.  He  was  a  student  of 
everything  passing  before  him  ;  a  ready  and  graceful  writer  ;  and  as  a 
pleasing  and  entertaining  speaker  he  had  few  equals.  To  the  rigidly 
logical  and  analytical  mind,  that  delights  to  dwell  in  frigid  and  cold  ab- 
straction, he  was  not  an  ideal  man.  But  the  fervor,  pathos,  and  ideality 
of  his  mind,  when  speaking,  were  magical,  not  only  to  the  ear,  but  to  the 
heart  and  soul  of  the  populace  ;  and  men  were  instinctively  drawn  to  him, 
because  his  sincerity  and  fidelity  were  stamped  upon  his  every  word  and 
gesture. 

"  Until  recent  years  his  life  was  a  tumultuous  and  a  busy  one,  and 
his  labors  were  Herculean.  Yet,  in  the  midst  of  them  all,  he  found  time 
to  attend  his  Odd  Fellows'  lodge  regularly,  and  to  discharge  with  fidelity 
every  duty  imposed  ;  so  that  his  name  is  imperishably  written  in  the  his- 
tory of  Odd  Fellowship  in  this  State  and  in  this  country,  and  will  shine 
through  the  years  to  come  as  brightly  as  that  of  any  name  which  adorns 
the  history  of  our  beloved  Order. 

"  Twenty  years  ago  I  met  Schuyler  Colfax  in  this  hall.  He  was  then 
in  the  full  vigor  of  physical  and  intellectual  manhood,  and  his  name  was 
familiar  as  household  words  to  thirty-five  millions  of  people.  I  have 
met  him  very  frequently  since — on  the  street,  on  the  railroad,  in  the 
private  .circle,  at  his  home  among  his  neighbors  and  friends — and  I  al- 
ways found  him  the  same  genial,  frank,  and  generous  gentleman,  friend, 
and  brother.  I  never  heard  any  one  that  knew  him  personally,  though  he 
was  a  bitter  political  opponent,  express  a  doubt  of  his  personal  integrity 
or  fidelity  to  his  friends  and  to  every  public  trust.  I  never  heard  of  his 
having  any  other  than  political  foes.  Men  who  were  his  peers  differed 
with  him  on  political  questions,  yet  loved  his  manhood  and  his  virtue. 

"  In  Brother  Colfax  we  have  one  of  the  most  striking  and  prominent 
illustrations  of  the  possibilities  in  our  Republic.  Born  in  obscurity  and 
poverty,  he  surmounted  every  obstacle,  and  by  dint  of  his  own  intrinsic 
excellencies,  he  placed  his  name  in  the  front  rank  of  the  most  distin- 
guished men  this  country  has  produced.  Yet  with  all  his  achievements, 
he  was  always  the  plain,  unassuming,  companionable  gentleman  and 
brother,  with  a  heart  and  hand  ever  ready  and  willing  to  minister  to  a 
brother  in  distress." 

Brother  W.  P.  Kuntz  :  "  I  rise  to  lay  a  single  chaplet 
on  the  honored  grave  of  Brother  Schuyler  Colfax.     For 


5  14  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

many  years  I  had  the  honor  of  his  personal  friendship. 
My  residence  was  in  his  district  during  all  his  Congres- 
sional career.  He  was  a  grand  man.  In  every  element 
of  true  greatness  he  was  the  peer  of  the  foremost  men  of 
the  age.  He  was  a  statesman,  a  philanthropist,  and  last, 
but  not  least,  a  true  Christian.  He  shed  undying  lustre 
on  our  noble  Order  of  Odd  Fellowship.  But  he  has  gone 
from  among  us  forever.  We  shall  no  more  enjoy  his  genial 
smile,  nor  hear  his  eloquent  voice.  He  has  left  a  halo  of 
glory  behind  him.  When  such  a  man  falls,  society  has 
lost  a  mighty  pillar.  It  is  ours  to  imitate  his  illustrious 
example.  I  cannot  now  dwell  on  his  shining  qualities. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  that  his  name  is  deathless  ; 

1  One  of  the  few,  the  immortal  names, 
That  were  not  born  to  die.' 

But  lately,  we  beheld  his  sun  careering  high  in  heaven, 
with  his  shadow  scarcely  turned  to  the  East  ;  suddenly  his 
sun  went  down  to  rise  again  in  new  splendor  on  the  im- 
mortal shore.  In  Eternity's  great  day  we  shall  meet  him 
again." 

Brother  B.  F.  Foster  :  "  I  rise  merely  to  add  a  pass- 
ing word  to  the  memory  of  one  whom  we  all  delighted 
to  honor,  and  whose  words  of  eloquence,  uttered  upon 
this  stand  six  months  ago,  are  still  ringing  in  our  ears. 
He  had  realized  in  his  own  life,  he  said,  the  harmonizing 
influences  of  Odd  Fellowship  ;  and  he  commended  it  to 
all  who  would  square  their  conduct  by  the  Golden  Rule. 
In  all  the  years  of  his  pilgrimage,  he  had  learned  to 
love  the  Order  more  and  more,  and  he  expressed  again 
his  oft-repeated  wish — that  when  the  messenger  of  death 
should  call,  he  might  be  buried  by  his  brethren  of  the 
Mystic  Tie.  How  well  this  last  wish  was  carried  out,  you 
all  know.  He  has  gone  out  from  us,  and  his  kindly  voice 
will  no  more  be  heard  in  our  halls.  He  has  left  for  us, 
however,  a  legacy  that  can  never  be  taken  away — a  bright 
and  beautiful  example,  in  which  were  illustrated  all  the 
cardinal  virtues  of  Odd  Fellowship.  May  it  be  ours  to 
gaze  upon  that  example  until  we  shall  feel  its  transforming 


IN   MEMORIAM.  515 

influence  operating  upon  our  own  hearts  and  lives  ;  until, 
like  him,  we  shall  be  constrained  to  '  go  about  doing 
good/  " 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas,  pastor  of  the  People's  Church 
in  Chicago,  preached  upon  "  The  Death  of  Coif  ax,"  "  the 
power  and  beauty  of  his  discourse,"  said  the  reporter,  "  at 
times  witnessed  by  demonstrations  of  applause,  subdued 
by  considerations  of  time  and  place."  Mr.  Thomas  said  : 
"  Mr.  Colfax  was  a  conspicuous  example  of  the  peculiar 
influences  of  our  free  American  life.  In  serving  his  coun- 
try and  his  age,  he  became  great  in  himself.  Leaving 
school  at  a  very  early  age,  he  was  pushed  out  into  the 
thought  and  work  of  the  world,  and  henceforth  these  were 
his  teachers.  From  a  clerk  in  a  store  and  a  debater  in  a 
literary  society,  he  became  a  writer  and  editor  of  a  paper  ; 
and  along  these  pathways  of  hard  work  and  common- 
sense,  and  by  an  honest  purpose  and  a  pure  life,  he  found 
his  way  into  the  national  Congress  and  the  Vice-Presi- 
dency of  a  great  nation.  He  was  a  man  of  the  people, 
clear,  strong,  sympathetic,  active,  and  earnest  in  his  efforts 
to  serve  his  country  well.  But  for  such  men  to  plead  the 
cause  of  liberty,  slavery  would  have  been  planted  in  the 
Territories,  and  the  c  black  laws  '  of  Illinois  been  in  force 
to-day.  Our  soldiers  in  many  graves,  our  statesmen  in 
many  tombs,  live  not  only  in  history,  but  as  an  inspiration 
to  the  present." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  DeWitt  Talmage,  of  Brooklyn  : 

14  Since  I  last  spoke  to  you  in  this  Friday-night  lectureship,  Schuyler 
Colfax  has  closed  his  life.  To  those  of  us  who  knew  him  well,  he  was 
the  impersonation  of  kindness,  the  highest  style  of  Christian  gentleman, 
and  brilliant  as  the  North  Star.  His  father  died  before  he  was  born. 
Schuyler  Colfax  fought  his  way  on  up  to  the  Speaker's  Chair  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  the  ablest  officer  that  ever  occupied  that  position,  and 
moved  on  still  further  until  he  came  within  one  step  of  the  Presidency, 
while  ten  million  friends  hoped  that  he  would  reach  that  highest  distinc- 
tion. But  American  politics  is  merciless,  and  it  put  its  paws  on  him,  as 
on  scores  of  other  illustrious  public  men,  and  attempted  his  destruction. 
I  never  believed  a  word  that  was  said  against  his  integrity.  I  am  glad 
that,  at  the  darkest  time  in  that  attack,  I  stood  in  the  Academy  of  Music, 
and  before  one  word  had  been  said  on  his  side,  or  any  explanation  given, 
declared  my  full  faith  in  him.  He  lived  down  the  unrighteous  assault, 


516  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  adjourned  in  his  honor  when  they 
heard  of  his  decease,  and  the  Legislature  of  his  own  State  sent  its  dele- 
gates to  his  obsequies,  and  high  officials  from  all  parts  of  the  land  stood 
around  his  casket,  while  his  own  city  was  filled  with  lamentation  for  the 
dead. 

"  I  have  known  many  people  in  public  and  private  life,  but  a  lovelier 
man  I  never  met.  Grace  was  poured  into  his  lips.  The  perpetual  smile 
on  his  face,  sometimes  meanly  caricatured,  was  the  benediction  of  his 
great  soul  upon  a  world  that  was  not  worthy  of  him.  The  snows  that 
now  cover  his  grave  are  not  purer  than  the  heart  resting  beneath  them. 
I  cannot  awaken  his  ear  with  eulogium,  but  I  plant  this  one  crocus  at 
the  verge  of  the  snowbank  that  arches  his  tomb,  Well  done,  brother, 
well  done. 

"  The  generous  words  he  uttered  concerning  myself  during  his  last 
Sabbath  afternoon  on  earth  I  shall  treasure  in  my  memory  as  long  as 
memory  lasts.  The  suddenness  of  his  going  off  was  no  calamity  to  him. 
In  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  his  spirit  fled.  Out  of  the  atmosphere  thirty 
degrees  below  zero  into  the  June  morning  of  God's  smile.  But  the  quick- 
ness of  the  transit  ought  to  rally  us  to  thoughtfulness  concerning  our  own 
departure.  Would  our  going  be  as  blessed  ?  Could  we  put  down  our 
satchel  in  a  railway  station,  as  that  traveller  did,  and  instantly  rise  to 
where  the  weary  are  at  rest  ?  I  think  many  of  you  could. 

"  This  dying,  after  all,  is  not  worth  making  so  much  ado  about,  if  we 
are  equipped  for  embarkation.  This  world,  though  so  fair,  is  not  the  best 
world.  These  associations,  though  so  blessed,  are  not  the  best  associa- 
tions. There  is  no  desert  to  cross,  no  river  to  ford,  no  heights  to  scale. 
The  last  gasp  of  earth  is  the  first  inhalation  of  heaven.  Through  the 
pardoning  grace  of  God  let  us  all  be  ready.  What  a  glorious  group  of 
friends  we  have  there  !  They  go  up  through  all  seasons.  We  bury  them 
amid  the  cowslips.  We  bury  them  in  the  frosts.  They  go  up  out  of 
cradles  and  out  of  the  weary  couch  of  the  old  man.  Some  go  from  under 
sudden  paroxysm  of  pain,  and  some  of  them  close  their  day  of  life  with 
the  long-continued  splendor  of  a  summer  sunset.  But  they  arrive  by 
swift  wing  in  the  eternal  calm— the  aching  void  in  our  hearts  responded 
to  by  the  longing  in  their  hearts  for  the  day  of  reunion.  We  cannot  for- 
get them  ;  they  cannot  forget  us." 

A  few  extracts  from  press  notices  published  on  the  occa- 
sion of  his  death  are  given  below  : 

The  Philadelphia  Press  (Republican):  "Many  of  the 
papers  that  abused  Schuyler  Colfax  during  his  life  are  ful- 
some in  their  praise  of  his  virtues  now  that  he  is  dead. 
Colfax  belongs  with  the  host  of  public  men  from  whom 
justice  was  withheld  until  they  lay  in  their  coffins." 

The    Cleveland  Plaindealer  (Democratic)  :   "  Mr.  Colfax 


IN   MEMORIAM.  517 

was  one  of  the  most  industrious  men  of  our  time  ;  amiable, 
kind-hearted,  and  intellectual.  Aside  from  that  Credit 
Mobilier  business,  his  life  was  unblemished,  and  in  that  he 
was  more  sinned  against  than  sinning  ;  and  will  remain  an 
example  of  how  much  stronger  impressions  and  prejudices 
are  than  facts." 

The  Cincinnati  Times-Star  (Republican)  :  "  The  unprej- 
udiced historian  who  writes  of  war  times  and  the  days  of 
reconstruction  will  have  much  to  say  to  the  credit  of  the 
late  Schuyler  Colfax,  and  will  indulge  in  little  disparaging 
comment  on  his  career.  Mr.  Colfax  was  a  self-made  man. 
He  rose  to  a  high  place  by  force  of  his  ability  and  merit. 
He  was  a  leader  in  the  House  for  nearly  fourteen  years. 
Among  the  men  who  encouraged  and  upheld  President 
Lincoln  during  the  trying  period  of  rebellion,  Mr.  Colfax 
was  conspicuous." 

The  Rochester  (N.  Y.)  .#mz/</(Independent);:  "  Pleasing 
in  appearance,  graceful  in  action,  always  suave  and  oblig- 
ing, industrious,  studious,  and  thorough  in  his  acquaint- 
ance with  public  affairs,  a  ready  debater  and  an  eloquent 
speaker,  he  possessed  in  a  remarkable  degree  the  qualities 
which  command  popular  success." 

The  Chicago  Herald  (Independent)  :  "  The  cloud  which 
lowered  upon  so  many  Christian  statesmen  in  1873,  when 
Oakes  Ames's  little  red  book  was  revealing  its  secrets,  post- 
dated his  defeat  by  Wilson  for  renomination  as  Vice- 
President,  and,  therefore,  had  nothing  to  do  with  his  retire- 
ment from  active  public  life,  though,  undoubtedly,  it  oper- 
ated to  determine  him  never  to  seek  entry  thereon.  Had 
he  chosen  to  continue,  his  chances  would  have  been  as 
good  as  Garfield's  or  Elaine's." 

The  Chicago  Tribune  (Republican)  :  "  He  had  the  qual- 
ity of  self-control  to  a  remarkable  degree,  and  he  attached 
himself  to  his  friends  very  strongly.  He  was  always  genial 
and  kindly  in  his  intercourse,  even  with  strangers  and 
chance  acquaintances.  Without  being  effeminate  in  any 
sense  of  .the  word,  he  had  the  shrewd,  quick  feminine  in- 
stincts which  led  him  always  to  say  the  proper  thing  at  the 
proper  time." 


518  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

The  San  Francisco  Chronicle  (Republican)  :  "  He  was  in 
many  respects  a  most  remarkable  man.  He  was  a  fine 
orator  and  a  strong  writer  ;  he  was  well  informed  on  an 
infinite  variety  of  topics  ;  he  was  heartily  in  sympathy 
with  the  best  people  on  the  political  issues  of  the  day  ;  he 
was  an  amiable  man,  with  hosts  of  personal  friends  ;  he 
possessed  that  rarest  of  all  gifts — consummate  tact." 

The  New  York  Graphic  (Independent)  :  "  His  greatest 
misfortune  was  that  in  his  earlier  years  he  was  a  news- 
paper man.  Perhaps  this  brought  him  his  subsequent  suc- 
cess, but  it  also  secured  for  him  the  malice  of  two  thirds 
of  the  newspaper  men  in  the  country,  the  malice  growing 
greater  the  higher  he  went.  But  for  the  press,  to  which 
he  had  formerly  belonged,  his  defence  against  the  charges 
in  the  Credit  Mobilier  matter,  though  a  little  thin,  would 
have  been  deemed  good  enough  to  save  him  to  public 
life." 

The  Springfield  (Mass.)  Republican  (Independent)  :  "  His 
service  as  Speaker  was  all  that  could  be  desired  in  that  re- 
sponsible place.  Calm,  equable,  genial,  and  thoroughly 
versed  in  parliamentary  usage,  he  never  forgot  a  right  or 
infringed  a  privilege  of  a  debater  ;  he  never  showed  par- 
tiality to  a  Republican  or  disfavor  to  a  Democratic  mem- 
ber ;  he  was  always  dignified  yet  urbane." 

Frank  Leslie 's  (Republican)  :  "  None  who  knew  the  man 
can  doubt  the  sincerity  of  the  words  which  he  uttered  but 
a  short  time  before  his  death — '  I  have  nothing  for  which 
to  offer  regrets  in  all  my  public  career.  Not  that  I  did 
not  make  mistakes,  as  every  man  will,  but  what  I  made 
were  honestly  made.' ' 

The  Chicago  Journal  (Republican)  :  "  He  was  a  typical 
American  of  the  better  class — generous,  energetic,  and 
broadly  democratic  in  his  instincts  and  in  his  life.  He 
was  profoundly  patriotic  and  conscientious." 

The  Buffalo  Express  (Republican)  :  "As  Speaker  he  had 
shown  both  ability  and  tact,  and  no  member,  though 
Elaine  and  Conkling  and  many  almost  equally  brilliant 
lights  were  in  the  House,  thought  of  aspiring  to  the  Chair 
until  Colfax  had  done  with  it." 


IN   MEMORIAM.  519 

The  Brooklyn  Times  (Republican)  :  "As  Speaker  in  a 
critical  period,  he  was  one  of  the  most  successful  men  that 
ever  held  that  trust.  He  was  at  one  time  Vice-President 
and  the  favorite  of  a  large  following  within  the  Republican 
Party  for  the  office  of  President." 

The  Salt  Lake  Tribune  (Independent)  :  "  Of  those  who 
stood  around  the  cross  reviling,  not  one  spoke  of  the  sick 
that  the  dying  Christ  had  healed  ;  not  one  of  the  blind 
whom  He  had  made  to  see  ;  not  one  of  the  multitude  He 
had  fed  ;  not  one  of  the  dead  that  He  had  raised  ;  not  one 
of  the  tempests  He  had  stilled.  The  indictment  ran  :  '  H6 
hath  made  Himself  King  of  the  Jews.'  Let  any  man  by 
his  talents  and  his  heroic  deeds  make  it  clear  that  upon 
him  and  within  him  rests  the  right  of  leadership,  because  of 
sovereign  glorious  attributes,  and  at  the  first  word  against 
him  millions  will  take  up  the  cry,  anxious  that  it  shall 
prove  true,  and  determined  to  hurl  the  offender,  whose 
only  offence  is  greatness,  down.  Partisan  hate  has  started 
the  slanders  that  have  sent  so  many  of  our  greatest  men 
to  the  grave  with  broken  hearts.' ' 

The  Minneapolis  Tribune  (Republican)  :  "  Schuyler  Col- 
fax  in  1868  occupied  such  a  place  in  the  popular  esteem  as 
Garfield  occupied  in  1880  ;  indeed,  Colfax  held  even  a 
higher  place  as  a  distinguished  and  immaculate  statesman 
when  the  Republican  National  Convention  met  in  May, 
1868,  than  Garfield  held  when  the  Chicago  Convention 
assembled  in  1880." 

The  Colorado  Springs  Gazette  (Republican)  :  "  It  is  with 
Lincoln,  and  Stevens,  and  Sumner,  and  Wilson  that  we 
class  Colfax,  and  with  them  he  deserves  and  will  receive  the 
respect  and  honor  of  posterity.  We  shall  do  well  to  stop 
for  a  moment's  homage  to  one  who  was  genial  and  kind  in 
private  life,  and  in  public  was  the  friend  of  freedom  and 
the  faithful  servant  of  his  country." 

The  Philadelphia  Ledger  (Republican)  :  "  His  abilities 
were  peculiarly  those  of  the  platform  orator,  of  the  alert 
and  active  debater,  of  the  student  and  master  of  the  minutiae 
of  parliamentary  law  and  usage.  He  was  an  adept  in  the 
rules  and  practice  of  the  House  of  Representatives  ;  this 


520  SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 

and  his  affable  deportment  made  him  Speaker  of  the  House 
again  and  again,  and  a  notably  able  Speaker  he  was." 

The  Bloomington  (111.)  Pantagraph  (Republican)  :  "  The 
private  life  of  Mr.  Colfax,  without  a  stain  or  a  suspicion 
among  the  people  with  whom  he  lived  as  a  neighbor,  bene- 
factor, and  friend,  for  nearly  half  a  century,  will  rise  up  to 
plead  for  him  as  long  as  party  malice  may  utter  a  whisper 
against  his  name." 

Harper's  Weekly  (Independent)  :  "  He  had  a  natural 
taste  for  politics,  and  he  was  a  sagacious  politician,  His 
Republican  convictions  were  strong,  and  in  the  press,  upon 
the  stump,  and  in  Congress  he  was  an  efficient  worker. 
He  was  a  kindly,  pleasant  man,  of  good  impulses  and  gen- 
erous feelings." 

The  Philadelphia  Times  (Independent)  :  "  As  presiding 
officer  of  the  House  at  Washington  during  the  sessions  of 
three  successive  Congresses,  he  was  both  popular  and  effi- 
cient. He  filled  the  office  of  Vice-President  in  an  accepta- 
ble manner,  and  at  one  time  had  apparently  better  prospects 
for  the  Presidency  than  any  other  man  in  public  life." 

The  Sacramento  Record-Union  (Republican)  :  "  He  was  a 
man  of  broad  capacity  in  the  discharge  of  administrative 
functions,  and  as  an  executive  officer  has  had  few  equals. 
He  was  the  friend  of  freedom  from  youth  up,  and  stood  at 
no  sacrifice  to  advocate  the  claims  of  human  liberty.  A 
large  share  of  his  life  labors  was  given  to  philanthropic 
and  humanitarian  schemes,  and  was  directed  toward  the 
unifying  of  men  in  the  bonds  of  the  common  friendship  of 
humanity." 

The  St.  Louis  Globe- Democrat  (Republican)  :  "  Few  pub- 
lic men  occupied  a  larger  share  of  general  attention  from 
the  middle  of  the  war  period  down  to  the  close  of  General 
Grant's  first  Presidential  term  in  1873.  If  the  trouble  with 
Andrew  Johnson  had  not  occurred  and  rendered  the  nom- 
ination of  General  Grant  almost  a  necessity,  Mr.  Colfax 
would  have  stood  a  good  chance  for  the  Presidency  instead 
of  the  Vice-Presidency  that  year  [1868]." 

The  Christian  Union:  "His  affable  manners  and  his 
genuine  good-will  made  him  friends  ;  his  fairness  of  spirit 


IN   MEMORIAM.  $21 

won  for  him  respect  ;  and  his  quickness  of  intellect  rather 
than  his  grasp,  his  foresight,  or  his  insight,  gave  him 
power.  His  hold  upon  the  public,  however,  depended 
chiefly  on  his  moral  qualities  ;  the  charges  involving  his 
probity,  in  connection  with  the  Credit  Mobilier,  were 
never  met  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  public,  though  they 
were  squarely  denied  by  him,  and,  in  our  judgment,  were 
never  substantiated." 

The  New  York  Herald  (Independent)  :  "He  possessed 
all  the  attributes  of  a  leader.  He  had  courage  and  personal 
magnetism.  He  had  a  fine  voice,  an  eloquent  delivery,  a 
fluent  pen,  and  the  power  of  organizing  his  forces  into 
irresistible  columns  in  his  campaigns.  He  had  ambition 
enough  to  aspire  to  the  most  exalted  position." 

The  St.  Paul  Pioneer-Press  (Republican)  :  "After  the 
war  was  ended  its  highest  honors  were  reserved,  indeed, 
for  the  general  who  had  led  its  armies  to  victory  ;  but  the 
most  splendid  distinction  which  coul'd  then  be  conferred 
by  the  people  on  any  political  leader  was  awarded  to 
Schuyler  Colfax,  in  linking  his  name  with  that  of  Ulys- 
ses S.  Grant  on  the  Republican  Presidential  ticket  of 
1868." 

The  Kansas  City  Journal  (Republican)  :  "  Devoted  to 
liberty,  brave  in  the  defence  of  the  poor  and  down-trod- 
den, boundless  in  his  ambition  to  extend  the  resources,  the 
power,  and  influence  of  his  country,  Mr.  Colfax  must  take 
a  place  in  history  as  one  of  the  great  builders  of  free  insti- 
tutions." 

The  Utica  (N.  Y.)  Herald  (Republican)  :  "  The  hand  that 
guided  the  House  of  Representatives  through  those  turbu- 
lent periods  of  partisan  controversy  was  not  only  skilful 
but  firm.  In  the  tact,  the  dexterity,  the  quickness,  the  in- 
stinctive sensing  of  parliamentary  law,  Mr.  Colfax  was 
the  ideal  Speaker.  There  is  no  position  in  the  Federal 
Government  which  so  tests  the  nerve,  so  tries  the  temper, 
so  brings  out  the  man,  as  this  one.  It  must  be  said  of  any 
one  who  has  discharged  its  duties  with  the  success  that 
marked  Mr.  Colfax's  career  in  the  Chair,  that  he  possessed 
the  essential  elements  of  greatness.  For  such  a  success  in- 


$22  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

volves  in  the  largest  degree  the  capacity  for  the  leadership 
of  men." 

The  North-western  Christian  Advocate  :  "In  every  public 
relation  he  served  with  vigor,  honor,  competency,  and  per- 
fect impartiality,  his  enemies  even  being  the  judge.  Of 
the  people,  beloved  by  the  people,  loving  the  people,  and 
preferring  the  people,  we  doubt  if  the  nation  has  ever  pro- 
duced a  citizen  who  has  more  thoroughly  represented  the 
people — Lincoln  and  Garfield  not  excepted.  He  seldom 
did  a  pre-eminently  splendid  and  dazzling  thing,  but  few 
men  amid  the  myriad  appointed  duties  and  multitudinous 
sudden  calls  for  service,  have  so  seldom  done  an  ordinary 
thing.  He  seemed  to  know  all,  to  be  everywhere,  to  see 
all  things,  to  have  views  on  all  things,  to  write  to  every- 
body, and  yet  never  to  lose  any  time.  Quick  in  apprehen- 
sion, exact  in  comprehension,  fertile  in  resources,  honest 
in  methods,  apt  in  speech,  affable  in  personal  presence, 
and  clean  as  a  girl,  he  is  just  the  example  to  quote  to 
American  boys." 

The  following  personal  tributes  are  from  interviews 
published  in  various  papers  and  from  letters  : 

The  Hon.  David  Turpie,  of  Indiana  :  "  Yes,  he  deliber- 
ately chose  to  retire.  His  tastes  were  decidedly  literary. 
Our  last  meeting*  was  not  only  serene,  but  very  happy. 
Business  drew  me  to  Washington  while  he  was  Vice-Presi- 
dent. He  received  me  with  all  that  kindness  of  which  he 
was  so  perfect  a  master.  He  showed  me  through  all  the 
Government  buildings,  introduced  me  in  the  various  De- 
partments, and  called  with  me  on  President  Grant.  One 
day,  as  we  were  driving,  he  said  to  me  :  *  At  the  end  of  my 
term  I  will  permanently  enter  private  life  and  prepare  for 
the  life  to  come.'  Though  I  did  not  doubt  his  candor,  I 
believed  him  unable  to  do  as  he  wished.  I  felt  that  there 
were  other  interests  besides  his  own  personal  interests  to 
be  consulted.  Having  been  so  long  and  so  conspicuously 
a  public  character,  I  believed  that  his  retirement  would  be 
attended  with  difficulty.  I  may  not  have  replied,  but  I 
remember  that  his  observation  made  an  impression  on 
me." 


IN   MEMORIAM.  523 

The  Hon.  A.  B.  Nettleton,  of  Minnesota  :  "  He  prob- 
ably made  fewer  mistakes  of  judgment  as  a  statesman  and 
politician  than  any  other  man  of  his  time,  and  in  his  per- 
sonal and  business  affairs  he  was  equally  judicious  and 
well-balanced.  But  it  was  personally  and  in  his  capacity 
as  a  private  citizen  and  a  friend  that  his  finest  qualities 
came  to  the  surface.  It  was  his  genial,  companionable, 
sunny  ways  which  gave  him  his  chief  hold  upon  the  public 
good-will  and  made  him  so  remarkably  successful  in  public 
life.  Of  course  the  period  of  trial  through  which  he  passed 
in  connection  with  the  Credit  Mobilier  scandal  of  1873  was 
the  one  pathetic  episode  of  his  life.  Nobody  who  claims 
to  be  intelligent  now  believes  that  he  was  to  any  extent 
whatever  implicated  in  that  matter  ;  but  the  accusation 
made  by  Oakes  Ames,  and  rendered  plausible  by  attending 
circumstances,  coupled  with  the  malignant  and  persistent 
assaults  of  a  part  of  the  press,  undoubtedly  had  the  effect 
for  a  time  of  shadowing  the  good  name  of  Mr.  Colfax  with 
many  fair-minded  people.  His  private  letters,  written  dur- 
ing those  days  of  darkness,  many  of  which  I  have  pre- 
served, are  singularly  eloquent  and  pathetic." 

Vice-President  Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  of  Indiana : 
"  There  has  always  been  a  strong  affection  in  my  regard 
for  him.  He  was  as  handsome  a  young  man  as  I 
have  ever  known,  open  in  his  deportment,  and  obliging. 
He  was  a  rapid  and  accurate  writer,  and  he  spoke  with 
great  beauty  and  fluency.  But  his  industry  and  public 
spirit,  no  less  than  his  exquisite  social  qualities,  endeared 
him  to  the  people  among  whom  he  lived.  No  man  ever 
found  a  warmer  place  in  the  hearts  of  his  neighbors  than 
Schuyler  Colfax  has  at  South  Bend.  One  cannot  speak 
with  those  people  without  discovering  it  ;  only  a  good 
man  could  be  so  loved." 

The  Hon.  James  N.  Tyner,  of  Indiana  :  "  Let  me  close 
by  bearing  cheerful  testimony  to  the  honorable  traits  of  his 
character — to  his  kindness  of  heart,  gentle  nature,  gener- 
ous impulses,  faithfulness  to  all  trusts,  and  loyalty  to 
friendships.  I  have  never  known  a  better  man  in  all  the 
elements  of  noble  manhood,  and  I  never  loved  a  friend 


524  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

more  ardently.  In  private  life  he  was  a  model  of  refine- 
ment and  purity  ;  in  public  life  Jie  was  the  ideal  states- 
man." 

The  Hon.  Justin  S.  Morrill,  of  Vermont  :  "  He  has 
sometimes  been  ironically  termed  one  of  the  '  Christian 
statesmen,'  but  I  have  no  doubt  he  is  entitled  to  wear  that 
designation  in  its  truest  sense.  I  knew  him  well,  and  I 
cannot  believe  that  he  ever  gave  offence  to  a  conscience 
alive  to  the  slightest  touch  of  wrong-doing.  He  will  carry 
to  the  grave  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart,  and  have  more 
boys  wearing  his  name  than  ever  graced  the  career  of  any 
man  destitute  of  Revolutionary  fame  save  Henry  Clay." 

Brigadier-General  O.  O.  Howard,  U.S.A.  :  "  Mr.  Col- 
fax  always  met  me  with  a  marked  warmth  of  manner,  and 
spoke  with  the  utmost  openness  and  freedom  on  all  topics. 
It  was,  indeed,  a  great  treat  to  me  to  have  a  half  hour's 
conversation  with  him.  He  was  my  beau-ideal  of  the 
cheerful  Christian,  and  I  have  often  said  that  no  person 
who  knew  him  would  hesitate  to  trust  in  his  hands  his 
every  dollar,  so  much  did  his  frank,  honest  face  inspire  one 
with  confidence." 

The  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Rice,  of  Massachusetts  :  "  My 
remembrance  of  Mr.  Colfax  is  very  fresh.  I  served  with 
him  in  Congress  before  he  became  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  when  he  was  one  of  the  most  industri- 
ous, studious,  and  influential  members  of  that  body.  And 
after  he  became  Speaker  I  was  among  the  daily  witnesses 
of  his  tireless  energy,  impartiality,  and  patience,  amid  the 
delicate  and  exacting  duties  of  that  high  position.  He  was 
always  regarded  as  a  man  of  decided  convictions,  and  fear- 
less in  their  expression  when  occasion  called  ;  yet  there 
were  always  that  candor  and  sincerity  in  his  speech  which 
took  away  all  offensiveness,  even  when  he  was  most  vehe- 
ment. Mr.  Colfax  had  many  friends  and  few  enemies  ;  and 
his  intimacies  were  always  frank,  confiding,  and  sincere." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  R.  M.  Hatfield,  of  Evanston,  111.  :  "  In 
my  thought  Mr.  Colfax  was  an  honest  man,  an  unselfish 
patriot,  an  able  statesman,  a  genial  and  generous  friend, 
and  a  sincere  Christian.  He  deserves  an  honored  place 


IN   MEMORIAM.  525 

among  the  best  citizens  of  the  Republic.  His  death,  sud- 
den and  distressing  as  it  was  to  his  friends,  was  in  keeping 
with  his  active  and  useful  life.  Blighted  by  no  decay,  in 
the  full  strength  of  his  manly  powers,  he  ceased  at  once  to 
work  and  live." 

The  Hon.  W.  R.  Smith,  of  Maine  :  "  For  more  than 
thirty  years  Mr.  Colfax  and  myself,  although  politically 
opposed,  were  on  terms  of  very  friendly  intimacy.  While 
he  lived  I  entertained  the  highest  regard  for  his  life  and 
character,  and  now  that  he  is  removed  from  life,  I  retain  an 
affectionate  remembrance  of  his  exalted  virtues,  and  recur 
to  my  intercourse  with  him  with  great  pleasure." 

The  Rev.  Robert  Collyer,  of  New  York  :  "  Since  I  came 
to  know  him  I  have  loved  him  very  dearly,  and  carried  a 
picture  of  him  always  in  my  heart  as  he  looked  in  the  home 
at  South  Bend,  with  the  treasures  about  him  that  made  his 
life  so  radiant,  and  whose  life  he  also  made  so  radiant. 
And  it  always  seemed  as  if  that  was  one  home  in  a  dozen 
or  so  in  two  worlds  I  could  go  to  for  consolation  and 
strength  if  I  was  stricken  by  a  great  sorrow,  and  be  sure  to 
find  it.  He  was  one  of  the  not  many  men  who  make  life 
greatly  worth  living." 

General  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  of  New  York  :  "  In  his  great 
heart  there  was  malice  toward  none.  His  charity  was  all- 
abounding.  He  had  fought  the  good  fight,  he  had  kept 
the  faith.  In  public  life  and  in  private  life  ;  in  the  sun- 
shine and  in  the  storm,  his  face  was  steadily  toward  the 
stars." 

Mr.  Colfax  last  spoke  in  public  before  the  students  and 
friends  of  the  Metropolitan  Business  College  in  Chicago, 
five  days  prior  to  his  death.  His  lecture  on  that  occasion 
closed  as  follows  :  "  The  man  who  stands  fearlessly  for  the 
right  amid  the  devotees  of  wrong  ;  who  stands  single- 
handed,  if  need  be,  against  evil,  where  injustice  has  its 
legions  of  minions  ;  who  loves  the  good  and  follows  in  its 
ways  because  it  is  right,  and  eschews  error  and  wickedness, 
however  popular  may  be  their  service  ;  who  calmly  and 
confidently  looks  to  the  future  for  his  vindication  ;  and 
who  presses  forward  in  the  journey  of  life  with  steady 


526  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

step — that  man,  whether  in  palace  or  cottage,  is  the  true 
victor  on  the  battle-field  of  life.  He  shall  have  his  reward. 
For  in  that  land  where  the  streets  are  gold,  where  the  gates 
are  pearl,  where  the  walls  are  jasper  and  sapphire,  his  star 
of  victory  shall  shine  brighter  and  brighter,  while  the 
laurels  of  sceptre  and  crown,  of  office  and  of  fame,  shall 
wither  into  the  dust  and  ashes  of  which  they  were  formed." 


INDEX. 


ABOLITIONISTS,  49,  53-4,  65. 
Adams,  Charles  Francis,  153. 
Adams,  Grand-Master,  343. 
Albany  Evening  Journal,  451. 
Alley,  John  B.,  219,  400. 
Alta  California,  260. 
Alton  (111.)  Telegraph,  459. 
Alton  (111.)  Courier,  165. 
Ames,  Mary  Clemmer,  418. 
Ames,  Bishop  E.  R.,  73,  273. 
Ames,  Oakes,  382,  393,  398,  400-4, 

407,  410-11. 
Anderson,  Robert,  175. 
Anthony,  H.  B.,  365,  430,  457-8. 
Armstrong,  George  B.,  480. 
Ashley,  James  M.,  219,  245. 
Ashmun,  George,  253. 
Assassination  of  Garfield,  477-9. 

BAIRD,  Henry  Carey,  431. 
Baltimore  American,  366,  369,  387, 

414,  439,  450. 
Banks,   Nathaniel   P.,  85-90,    104, 

133,  276,  289,  295. 
Barnes,  W.  H.,  276,  300. 
Bates,  Edward,  42,  142,  147-8. 
Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  294,  344. 
Biddle,  Horace  P.,  63,  69. 
Boston  Advertiser,  438. 
Boston  Journal,  351,  438. 
Boston  Post,  212,  461. 
Boutwell,  G.  S.,  225,  249,  351,  384. 
Bovee,  Martin  H.,  355. 
Bowen,  Henry  A.,  183. 
Bowles,   Sam,  87,  146,  262-4,  343, 

351,  360-1,  364,  371. 
Boynton,  the  Rev.  Dr.,  301. 


Buchanan,    James,    99,    113,    115, 

125,  137,  152,  195. 
Buffalo  Express,  518. 
Bull  Run,  181. 

Burlingame,  A.,  98,  106,  in,  119. 
Butler,  Benjamin  F.,  331-2,  362-3. 
Elaine,  James  G.,  234,  243,  274, 

334,  377,  392,  465,  467,  469- 
Blair,  Francis  P.,  181-3. 
Bloomington  (111.)  Pantagraph,  520. 
Bridgeport  (Conn.)  Standard,  447. 
Briggs,  the  Rev.  Mr.,  447. 
Brooklyn  Eagle,  353. 
Brooklyn  Times,  519. 
Brooklyn  Union,  352. 
Broomall,  John  M.,  229. 
Brooks,  Preston  H.,  98. 
Brown,  John,  149. 
Brownlow,  William  G.,  287. 

CALIFORNIA  admitted,  60. 
Calkins,  W.  H.,  501,  505. 
Cameron,  Simon,  147,  373. 
Campbell,  Lewis  D.,  87-90. 
Canvass  of  1868,  327-8. 
Canvass  of  1872,  372. 
Cathcart,  Charles  W.,  164,  285. 
Cedar  Falls  (la.)  Gazette,  367. 
Cincinnati  Gazette,  301,  381, 
Cincinnati  Enquirer,  181. 
Cincinnati  Commercial,  368. 
Cincinnati  Times-Star,  517. 
Civil  Rights  Bill,  282. 
Colfax,  General  Wm.,  14,  15,  28. 
Colfax,  Hetty  Schuyler,  15,  28. 
Colfax,  George  Washington,  28-30. 
Colfax,  Schuyler,  the  1st,  15,  16-18. 


528 


INDEX. 


Colfax,  Mrs.  Hannah  D.,  13,  15,  18. 

Colfax,  Mary,  18. 

Colfax,' Evelyn  E.,  172   208-10. 


Colfax,    Ellen    W.,   389,   437,   457, 

496,  510. 
Colfax,  Schuyler,  the  3d,  352,  488. 


COLFAX,  SCHUYLER,  Speaker  and  Vice-President. 

Ancestry,  birth,  at  school,  at  home,  clerk,  political  precocity,  13-22. 

Removes  to  Indiana,  life  at  New  Carlisle,  23-7. 

Correspondence  with  his  uncle,  George  Washington  Colfax,  28-9. 

Political  writer  and  worker,  reads  law,  amusements,  30-1. 

Member  of  mock  Legislature,  teetotaler,  temperance  worker,  32-4. 

Senate  Reporter,  editor,  speaker,  marriage,  housekeeping,  35-9. 

Founds  the  St.  Joseph  Valley  Register,  joins  the  Church,  40-1. 

Secretary  of  Harbor  and  River  Convention  at  Chicago,  1847,  42. 

Candidate  for  Clerk  Indiana  House  of  Representatives,  defeated,  43. 

Delegate  to  and  Secretary  of  National  Whig  Convention,  1848,  44-5. 

Elected  Grand  Representative  by  the  Indiana  Odd  Fellows,  55. 

Record  as  member  of  Constitutional  Convention,  1850,  56-9. 

Joint  canvass  for  Congress  with  Dr.  G.  N.  Fitch,  defeated,  62-4. 

Proposes  and  carries  the  Rebekah  Degree  in  Odd  Fellowship,  65. 

Delegate-at-Large  to  National  Whig  Convention  of  1852,  66-8. 

Declines  to  run  for  Congress,  69  ;  denounces  the  Nebraska  Bill,  72. 

Joint  canvass  for  Congress  with  Dr.  Norman  Eddy,  elected,  75-7. 

Delegate  to  National  Know-Nothing  Council,  proceedings,  79-80. 

Resigns  the  office  of  Grand  Representative,  Si. 

Takes  his  seat  in  Congress,  83  ;  service  in  organizing  the  House,  85-90. 

Placed  on  the  Committee  on  Elections,  91. 

Speech  against  enforcement  of  the  "  bogus  laws  "  in  Kansas,  92-3. 

Correspondence,  94  ;  in  the  Congressional  caucauses,  96. 

Letters  to  public  meetings,  97  ;  reception  at  home,  101. 

Joint  canvass  for  Congress  with  Judge  Stuart,  re-elected,  102-4. 

Visits  New  York  and  New  England,  declines  banquet,  105-6. 

Short  session,  champions  free  sugar,  cool  in  a  panic,  109-10. 

In  Thirty-fifth  Congress,  on  Committee  on  Indian  Affairs,  116-18. 

Endeavor  to  bring  Douglas  to  the  Republican  position,  119-25. 

Speech  against  Lecompton,  125-27  ;  re-elected  to  Congress,  128-33. 

Opposed  to  land-grabbing,  135  ;  votes  for  admission  of  Oregon,  138. 

Comments  on  work  of  short  session,  139 ;  correspondence,  143-6. 

In  Thirty-sixth  Congress,  Chairman  Postal  Committee,  153-5. 

Establishment  of  daily  overland  mail,  156-9. 

Night  session,  presides,  160  ;  advocates  Homestead  Bill,  161. 

Re-elected  to  Congress,  163-5  ;  canvasses  in  Illinois,  165. 

Suspension  of  postal  service  in  the  seceded  States,  169. 

Widely  commended  fgr  Postmaster-General,  174-5. 

In  Thirty-seventh  Congress,  opposes  direct  tax,  179. 

Standing  in  the  House,  182  ;  defends  Fremont,  183. 

Relations  with  Lincoln,  186  ;  emancipation  and  confiscation,  188. 


INDEX.  529 

Efforts  to  make  Postal  Department  self-sustaining,  189-93. 

Sends  his  voters  away  to  the  War,  193-4. 

Re-elected  to  Congress,  congratulations,  197-200. 

Declines  a  seat  in  Lincoln's  Cabinet,  201. 

Indemnification  of  Lincoln  for  suspension  of  habeas  corpus,  202. 

Favors  taxation  of  bank  circulation,  205. 

Codification  of  the  postal  laws,  205  ;  correspondence,  206. 

Death  of  his  wife,  208-10  ;  canvasses  in  New  York,  210. 

In  Thirty-eighth  Congress,  elected  Speaker,  211. 

Congratulations,  212-17  ;  press  dinner,  219. 

Leaves  the  Chair,  and  moves  the  expulsion  of  Long,  222-9. 

Thanks  of  the  soldiers,  presentation  of  silver  plate,  234. 

Re-elected  to  Congress,  236-43  ;  estimate  of  as  Speaker,  248. 

Declines  to  take  editorial  chair  of  New  York  Tribune,  249. 

Disposes  of  the  St.  Joseph  Valley  Register,  250. 

Last  interview  with  Lincoln,  252-4  ;  tribute  to,  254. 

Overland  trip,  251-64  ;  welcomed  home,  265. 

Lecture  entitled  "Across  the  Continent,"  Pacific  Railroad,  266-8. 

Serenade  speech  on  reconstruction,  effect  of,  270-5. 

In  Thirty-ninth  Congress,  re-elected  Speaker,  inaugural,  275-6. 

Again  declines  editorial  chair  of  New  York  Tribune,  279. 

Short  speeches  on  sundry  topics,  277-83. 

Favors  admission  of  Tennessee,  his  policy,  283-4. 

Parliamentary  ruling,  Rousseau  and  Grinnell,  287. 

Reception  at  home,  re-elected  to  Congress,  290-3. 

No  aspirations  for  the  Presidency,  serenade  speech,  296-7. 

Estimates  of  by  sundry  authorities,  301-2. 

In  Fortieth  Congress,  re-elected  Speaker,  inaugural,  303. 

Serenade  speech,  receptions,  in  the  canvass,  306-8. 

Speech  at  Cooper  Institute,  New  York  City,  309. 

Proposed  for  President,  the  Presidency  passes  by  him,  296,  313-14. 

No.  7  Lafayette  Square,  "dare  not  drink  wine,"  315. 

Belief  that  President  Johnson  will  be  convicted,  317. 

Declines  to  run  for  Governor  of  Indiana,  319. 

Nominated  for  Vice- President,  reception  at  home,  322-5. 

Summers  in  Colorado,  in  the  canvass,  elected,  325-9. 

Marriage,  329 ;  deals  with  an  obstructionist,  332. 

Resigns  the  Speakership,  valedictory,  334. 

Declines  to  be  a  general  office-beggar,  alienations,  337. 

"  Their  wedding  journey,"  339-42  ;  temperance  address,  343. 

Condoles  with  his  assassinated  friend  Richardson,  344. 

Presides  at  Forty-sixth  Anniversary  American  S.  S.  Union,  345. 

Sundry  addresses,  universal  editor,  canvasses  Indiana,  346-7. 

Defends  Grant's  administration,  347-8,  356,  369,  372. 

Rotation  in  office  the  law  of  popular  politics,  349. 

Will  retire  permanently  from  office  at  end  of  his  term,  350-2. 


530  INDEX. 

His  relations  with  President  Grant,  352. 

Declines  an  offer  of  $25,000  salary  per  y^ar,  352. 

Prostrated  by  an  attack  of  vertigo  in  the  Senate,  353-5. 

Declines  to  resign  and  be  Grant's  Secretary  of  State,  356-7. 

Protest  against  his  retirement  from  public  life,  358-9. 

Urged  to  contest  the  Presidental  nomination,  355,  360-4,  367,371. 

Yields  to  the  demand  for  the  old  ticket,  365. 

Does  not  desire  but  will  accept  renomination  if  tendered,  366. 

Vetoes  presentation  of  his  name  for  first  place  by  Indiana,  367. 

His  disinterestedness  not  appreciated,  370-1  ;  sacrificed,  373-6. 

Serenade  speech  at  home,  376  ;  in  the  campaign,  376-8,  380-1. 

Wets  the  Credit  Mobilier  ammunition  of  the  Greeley  coalition,  382-4. 

Again  declines  editorial  chair  of  New  York  Tribune,  385-91. 

Before  the  Poland  Investigating  Committee,  399-413- 

Passes  the  gavel  of  the  Senate  to  his  successor,  valedictory.  417. 

Reception  at  home,  420-6  ;  letters  and  press  comments,  426-31. 

Review  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  proceedings,  432-41. 

Overrun  with  calls  for  speaking,  series  of  popular  ovations,  442-8. 

Declines  unanimous  election  to  Congress  in  1874,  449-52. 

Welcome  in  Colorado,  453  ;  lecture  on  Lincoln,  455-64. 

Reception  in  Canada,  458  ;  his  work  as  a  lecturer,  463. 

Declines  to  run  for  Congress  in  1876,  466. 

In  the  canvass,  approves  seating  of  Hayes,  468. 

Disapproves  abandonment  of  Southern  loyalists,  470. 

Agitates  for  the  suppression  of  polygamy,  472-3. 

Canvasses  for  Garfield  and  Porter,  474-5. 

Declines  to  run  for  United  States  Senator,  476-7. 

On  the  assassination  of  President  Garfield,  477-9. 

Presidential  "  disability,"  reception  by  Legislature,  479-80. 

Declines  to  run  for  Congress  in  1882,  481-4. 

On  the  Republican  reverses  of  1882,  485-6. 

On  Governor  Morton,  universal  censor,  visits  Oregon,  487-8. 

In  the  field  for  Elaine,  Elaine's  defeat  and  future,  489-90. 

Plans  for  the  winter,  dies  suddenly  at  Mankato,  Minn.,  491-494. 

How  the  announcement  was  received  by  the  country,  496-500. 

Citizens'  Meeting  at  Indianapolis,  Memorial,  501-3. 

The  funeral  train  from  Mankato  to  South  Bend,  503-4, 

Obsequies,  the  Rev.  Mr.  N.  D.  Williamson's  discourse,  504-9. 

Eulogies  by  his  brother  Odd  Fellows  and  others,  510-516. 

Newspaper  notices,  516-22  ;  personal  tributes,  522-25. 

"  The  true  victor  on  the  battle-field  of  life,"  525-6. 


Confiscation,  188-9. 
Collyer,  the  Rev.  Robert,  351,  525. 
Colorado  Springs  Gazette,  519. 
Congress,  85-90,  99,   115,  135-40, 


150-2,  172,  178-80,  193,  204,  207, 

248,  289,  298-9. 
Congressional  Globe,  245. 
Conkling,  Roscoe,  295,  332. 


INDEX. 


531 


Constitutional    Amendment,    245, 

283,  287,  334, 

Constitutional  Convention,  56-9. 
Cooke,  Jay,  352,  412. 
Copperheads,  The,  196,  204,  209, 
Corvvin,  Thomas,  44,  145, 
Cox,  Samuel  S.,  211,  223,  248. 
Cumback,  Will,  512. 
Cuyler,  the  Rev.  Theo.  L.,  265,  414, 
Cutcheon,  S.  M.,  321. 
Chandler,  Zachary,  181,  283,  377. 
Chapman's  (Ind.)  Chanticleer,  73. 
Charlotte  (Mich.)  Leader,  444, 
Chester  Co.  (Pa.)  Democrat,  161. 
Chicago  Current,  498. 
Chicago  Journal,  451,  498,  518. 
Chicago  Evening  Post,  374. 
Chicago  Herald,  517. 
Chicago  Inter-Ocean,  452,  459,  482. 
Chicago  Republican,  272. 
Chicago  Times,  194,  476. 
Chicago  Tribune,  198,  498,  517. 
Clark,  Evelyn  E.,  19,  24,  27,  31,  39. 
Clark,  Horace  F.,  393,  403,  410. 
Clay  Compromise,  60-1. 
Cleveland  Plaindealer,  516. 
Credit  Mobilier,  382-4,  392-7. 
Crittenden  Resolution,  179,  185. 
Crounse,  L.  L.,  40x3. 
Crown  Point  Register,  453. 

DAILY  OVERLAND  MAIL,  156-9. 

Dana,  Charles  A.,  93,  145. 

Davis,    Henry   Winter,    145,    219, 

226-8,  277,  280. 
Davis,  Garret,  Senator,  282. 
Dawes,  Henry  L.,  165,  219,  333. 
Decoration  Day,  meaning  of,  449. 
Defrees,  John  D.,   35-6,   73,    103, 

148,  159,  266,  323,  338-9, 
Denver  Times,  453. 
Denver  Tribune,  453. 
De  Pauw,  W.  C.,  510, 
De  Witt  (la.)  Observer,  445. 
Dillon,  Moses,  letter,  405. 
Donelson,  fall  of,  184, 


Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  71,   119-24, 

129,  162,  174. 
Duddy,  John  M.,  233. 
Durant,  Thomas  C.,  393,  402, 
Dred  Scott  decision,  113-15, 
Drew,  John  T.,  406-09. 

EDDY,  Rev.  THOS.  N.,  249,  455. 
Eddy,  Norman,  72,  75-8,  103,  180. 
Edwards,  Rev.  A.t  290-1,  499,  522. 
Elbert,  Samuel  H.,  429. 
Election  of  1862,  196. 
Election  of  1864,  236. 
Election  of  1867,  312. 
Electoral  Vote,  counting,  331. 
Electoral  Commission,  468. 
Elkhart  (Ind.)  Review,  132. 
Emancipation     170^,     181,     184-7, 

195-6,  206-7,  236,  244-5. 
English  paper,  315. 
English,  W.  H.,  127,  130. 

FENTON,  REUBEN  E.,  321-3. 
Fillmore,  Millard,  52,  66,  95. 
Fisk,  Clinton  B.,  407-8,  413,  525. 
Fitch,  Graham  N.,  62-5,  180. 
Forney,  John  W.,  85,  221,  308. 
Foster,  John  W.,  367,  373,  377. 
Foster,  B.  F.,  514. 
Fulton,  C.  C.,  365,  369. 
Frank  Leslie's,  518. 
Fredericksburg,  assault  on,  203. 
Free-Soilers,  53-4. 
Fremont,    J.  C.,    99,    1.05-6,     180, 

183-4. 
Friedly,  Mr.,  Indiana,  466. 

GARFIELD,  J.  A.,  221,  234,  254,  288, 
333,  398,  401,  474.  477-9,  5o6. 

Georgetown  (Col.)  Miner,  453. 

Giddings,  Joshua  R.,  100. 

Golladay,  J.  S.,  429,- 

Goshen  (Ind.)  Democrat,  450. 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  184,  237,  246-7, 
308,  312,  314,  316,  318,  320,  323- 
4,  329,  372,  376,  426,  436,  474, 
496,  500. 


532 


INDEX. 


Graves,  Mary  Baldwin,  22. 

Grand  Lodge  Memorial,  512. 

Greeley,  Horace,  13,  30,  45,  53,  56, 
62,  70-1,  75,  87-8,  93,  loo,  105, 
109,  119-20,  125-7,  139.  J48>  I5°» 
153,  186,  195,  200,  218,  249,  278, 

295,  305,  315,  355,  359,  36i,  37i, 

386-7. 

Gresham,  Walter  Q.,  505. 
Grinnell,  Josiah  B.,  287-9. 
Grow,  GalushaA.,  178. 

HALFORD,  E.  W.,  482,  502. 

Harper's  Weekly,  427-8,  520. 

Harper's  Bazar,  329. 

Harrison,  Ben,  476-7,  500. 

Harrison,  Alfred,  206. 

Harris,  Benjamin  G.,  223-6. 

Hartford  Courant,  334. 

Hastings,  Hugh  J.,  485. 

Hatfield,  the  Rev.  R.  M.,  524. 

Hendricks,  J.  A.,  73. 

Hendricks,  T.  A.,  134,  501,  505,  523. 

Hogan,  John,  299. 

Homestead  Bill,  161. 

Howard,  O.  O.,  524. 

Howard,  W.  A.,  91,  252. 

Holden,  E.  G.  D.,  374. 

Hook,  James,  511. 

Humphreys,  Dr.,  South  Bend,  325. 

Hunt,  Washington,  145. 

IMPEACHMENT,  317-18,  416-17. 
Indiana   State   Journal,    132,    182, 

194,  273,  455,  496. 
Indianapolis  Sentinel,  70,  443. 
Indianapolis  Herald,  498. 
Indianapolis  Review,  499. 
Iowa  State  Register,  486. 
Ireland,  sympathy  with,  281,  295-6. 

JACKSON,  E.  W.,  letter,  80. 

Jay,  John,  Union  League  Club,  306. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  247,  254-5,  269, 
271,  273,  278,  281,  293,  299,  305, 
308,  310-12,  314-18,  336,  346. 


Joint   Canvass,    62-4,    76,     102-3, 

128-33,  197,  239-42,  292-3. 
Judd?  Norman  B.,  165. 

KANSAS  TERRITORY,  71,  73,  84,  90- 
i,  107,  113-115,  H9,  125-7,  152. 
Kansas  City  Journal,  521. 
Kelley,  W.  D.,  223,  401. 
Kidder,  Joseph,  55. 
Kilburn,  Kate  R.,  273. 
Kennard,  Rev.  J.  Spencer,  431. 
Kokomo  (Ind.)  Tribune,  164. 
Kuntz,  W.  P.,  513. 

LANE,  H.  S.,  30,  73,  175,  282,  323. 
La  Porte  County  Convention,  285. 
La  Porte  (Ind.)  Herald,  190,  194. 
La  Porte  (Ind.)  Times,  93. 
Last  Public  Speech,  525-6. 
Le  Blond,  Frank  C.,  299. 
Lecompton  Constitution,  115,'  119, 

125-7,  130. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  123,  129,  146-7, 

162,  166,  171,  174-6,  178,  185-95, 

195,  201-3,  215,  243-4,  247,  252-4, 

456-64. 

Logan,  John  A.,  295,  334. 
Lossing,  Benson  J.,  217,  430. 
Long,  Alexander,  221-32. 
Louisville  Courier-Journal,  426. 
Lozier,  J.  H.,  306. 

MALLORY,  ROBERT,  224. 

Marsh,  Daniel  S.,  482. 

Matthews,  George  W.,  19,  21,  23, 

25,  31,  63-4,  69,  182-4,  238,  448. 
Matthews,  Mrs.  G.  W.,  19-20,  23, 

25,  3i,  35,  182,  213,  293,  323,  377- 

80. 
Medill,    Joseph,    120,    123-4,    *47» 

150,   152,    185-6,   200,   203,   249, 

411. 

Memorial,  Indianapolis,  501-2. 
Mexico,  war  with,  50-1. 
McClelland,  Mark  L.,  451,,  505. 
McClellan,  George  B.,  188,  195. 
McClure,  Alexander  K.,  322,  475. 


INDEX. 


533 


McComb,  Henry  S.,  382,  393. 
McCrary,  George  W.,  412. 
McCulloch,  Hugh,  234,  312, 
McLaren,  R.  N.,  142. 
McLean,  W.  E.,  511. 
McPherson,  E.,  217,  266,  275,  451. 
McQuiddy,  John  W.,  81. 
Miller,  Alfred  B.,  391,  4i°- 
Miller, W., Mayor,  South  Bend,  421. 
Miller,  John  F.f  198, 
Miller,  Samuel  F.,  428. 
Michigan  City  Enterprise,  451. 
Minneapolis  Tribune,  443,  519. 
Mishawaka  (Ind.)  Enterprise,  451. 
Missouri  Compromise,  48,  71. 
Merrill,  Justin  S.,  276,  315,  524. 
Morrison,  Alexander  H.,  442. 
Morton,  Oliver   P.,    98,    175,   204, 

377,  487- 
Mugwumps    of     1872,    348,    357, 

370-1. 
Myers,  W.  R.,  513. 

NATIONAL  INTELLIGENCER,  272. 
National  Republican  Conventions, 

147-8,  373-6- 
National   Whig    Conventions,    51, 

66-8. 

Nelson,  Colonel,  511. 
Nettleton,  A.  B.,  523. 
Newark  (N.  J.)  Times,  427. 
Newspapers,  postage  on,  191. 
New  Haven  Union,  447. 
New  Carlisle,  23-4. 
New  York  City  sixty  years  ago,  13. 
Newport  (R.  I.)  News,  197. 
New  York  Com.  Advertiser,  211, 

306,  438. 

New  York  Graphic,  485,  518. 
New  York  Herald,  324, 331,  500,  521. 
New  York  Independent,   86,   in, 

245,  320,  367,  418. 
New  York  Leader,  217. 
New  York  Tribune,  88-9,  128,  183, 

195,  210,  289,  294,  308,  312,  322, 

324,  354,  396. 


New  York  Times,  169,  232,  273. 
New  York  Sun,  341,  435. 
Nichols,  C.  M.,  Ohio,  459. 
Ninth    Dist.   Conventions,    54,  61, 

69,   75,   101,    128,   163,   194,  236, 

285. 

North  Iowa  Times,  141. 
North-western  Christian  Advocate, 

499,  522. 
Nott,  Rev.  Charles  D.,  483. 

OBSEQUIES,  The,  504-9. 

Odell,  Moses  F.,  245. 

Odd  Fellowship,  pertaining  to,  55, 

65,  So,  445-7,  466-7,  495,  5°3~4, 

507-8,  510. 

Oregon,  admission,  138-9. 
Orr,  James  L.,  87-8,  116,  125. 
Orth,  G.  S.,  44,  226,  265. 
Orton,  William  M.,  388-90. 
Otterbein  University,  442. 
Overland  Trip,  251-5,  258-62. 

PACIFIC    RAILROAD,   43,    70,    156, 

159,    193,     267-8,     340,    381-4, 

393-7- 

Packard,  Jasper,  130,  197,  329. 
Panic,  109-10,   395. 
Parker,  Cortlandt,  321. 
Pendleton,  George  H.,  228-9. 
Pennington,  William,  153,  160. 
Personal  tributes,  522. 
Peru  (Ind.)  Republican,  164. 
Pierce,  Franklin,  72,  91,  96,  99,  107, 

114,  152. 

Pittsburg  Chronicle,  160. 
Pittsburg  Commercial,  448. 
Poland     Committee,    392,     398-9, 

416-17. 
Polygamy,  76,  99,  117,  258-9,  342- 

3,  472-3. 

Pomeroy,  Theodore  M.,  276,  334. 
Porter,  Andrew  G.,  474,  502,  505. 
Postal  Service,  153-9,  l69»  189-193, 

205. 
Potsdam  Courier  &  Freeman,  444. 


534 


INDEX. 


Potter,  John  F.,  430. 
Poughkeepsie  News,  4461 
Putnam's  Magazine,  302. 
Philadelphia  Bulletin,  414. 
Philadelphia  Inquirer,  345,  471. 
Philadelphia  Ledger,  519. 
Philadelphia  N.  American,  439-41. 
Philadelphia  Press,  516. 
Philadelphia  Post,  346. 
Philadelphia  Times,  520. 
Plattsmouth  (Neb.)  Herald,  481. 
Plurality  rule,  87-90,  151. 
Pratt,  Daniel  D.,  433, 
Press  Notices,  496-9,  509-10,  517- 

22. 

Providence  (R.  I.)  Herald,  341. 
Providence  (R.  I.)  Journal,   365. 

RAY,  DR.,  Chicago  Tribune,    120, 

124. 

Raymond,  H.  J.,  217,  239,  288,  294. 
Rebekah  Degree,  I.  O.  O.  F.,  65. 
Reconstruction,    190,   269-72,  275, 

277,  283,  299,  305,  308,  316,  318- 

19.  334- 

Register,  The  St.  Joseph  Valley, 
history  of,  40,  43,  70,  81,  112, 
141,  219,  250. 

Register,  The  St.  Joseph  Valley, 
comments  of,  50-1,  61,  69,  71-3, 
75,  80,  82,  90,  113,  115,  131,  142, 
144,  170,  185,  188,  190,  201,  206, 
250,  329,  334,  45i,  494,  497- 

Rice,  Alexander  H.,  219,  524. 

Richardson,  Albert  D.,  344. 

Richardson,  W.  A.,  85,  88-9. 

Reid,  Whitelaw,  221,  348,  390. 

Rensselaer  (Ind.)  Gazette,  128. 

Republican  Convention,  St.  Joseph 
County,  149. 

Republican  Party,  73-4,  96,  99, 
308,  311,  454,  465,  469. 

Rockville  (Ind.)  Republican,  459. 

Rochester  (N.  Y.)  Herald,  517. 

Roman  (N.  Y.)  Citizen,  446. 

Russell,  Lewis,  510. 


SACRAMENTO  RECORD,  351. 

Sacramento  Record  Union,  520. 

St..  Leuis  Democrat,  459. 

St.  Louis  Dispatch,  486. 

St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  520. 

St.  Joseph  (Mo.)  Journal,  158. 

St.  Paul  Pioneer-Press,  498,  521. 

Salt  Lake  Tribune,  519. 

San  Francisco  Bulletin,  342. 

San  Francisco  Chronicle,  518. 

Sargent,  H.  E.,  429. 

Secession,  166-8,  171-2,  202. 

Severance,  W.  R.,  494. 

Soldier  Vote,  The,  196. 

South  Bend,   11-12,  323,  325,  329, 

496-7,  505,  508. 

Southern  Loyalists,  307,  468-9. 
South  Bend  Times,  509. 
South  Bend   Tribune,  420,  450-2, 

460,  466,  481,  496,  510. 
Schenck,  R.  C.,  219,  224-6,  315. 
Scott,  Winfield,  45,  52-3,  66-69. 
Scott,  Sir  William,  214. 
Simonton,  J.  W.,  109-10. 
Simpson,  Bishop,  279. 
Sinclair,  Samuel,  278,  387,  390. 
Shellabarger,  Samuel,  348,  395, 
Sheridan,  Philip  H.,  246-7. 
Sherman,  John,  91,   107,   151,   153, 

351,  431,  500. 
Sherman,  W.  T..  237-8,  244,  246, 

316. 

Shuman,  Andrew,  430. 
Slavery,  46-7,  48,  50,  60-1,  71,  84- 

91,  127-30,  129,  162,   170,  166-8, 

172,  185,  195,  245. 
Smith,  Caleb  B.,  175,  201. 
Smith,  W.  Scott,  400. 
Smith,  W.  R.,  525. 
Speaker,  The,  214-16. 
Springfield  (111.)  Journal,  340. 
Springfield  (O.)  Republic,,  477. 
Springfield  (Mass.)  Republican,  133, 

294,  326,  340,  384,  460,  518. 
Springfield  (Mass.)  Union,  447. 
Stanfield,  Thos.  S.,  43,  45,  130. 


INDEX. 


5.35 


Stanton,  E.  M.,  265,  308,  317. 
State  Rep.  Convention,  73,  97. 
Stephens,  A.  H.,  88,  125,  135. 
Stevens,  Thaddeus,  178,  182,  198-9, 

218,  276-7,  299,  302,  323. 
Stevenson,  Job  E.,  395. 
Strouse,  Myer,  290. 
Stryker,  Hannah,  13,  20-1. 
Studebaker,  Peter  E.,  496. 
Stuart,  Judge,  Logansport,  102-3. 
Success  a  duty,  142,  144,  153. 
Sumner,  Charles,  98,100,  274,  370, 
Sunday-School  Anniversary,  345. 

TALE  of  Two  Wedding  Rings,  327. 

Talmage,  T.  De  Witt,  429,  515. 

Tappan,  M.  W.,  165. 

Taylor,  B.  F.,  248. 

Taylor,  Zachary,  52-3,  6o-j,  66. 

Tennessee,  283,  287. 

Tenny,  A.  W.,  speech,  374. 

Terre  Coupee  Prairie,  23-4. 

Texas,  annexation,  50. 

Toledo  Blade,  306. 

Turpie,  David,  196-8,  243,  292-3, 

502,  522. 

Turner,  David,  284,  451. 
Twelve  Years'  Work,  463. 
Tyner,  James  N.,  197,  239,  523. 
Thomas,  Geo.  H.,  244,  316. 
Thomas,  the  Rev.  Dr.,  515. 
Thomas,  Lorenzo,  316-17. 
Thompson,  R.  W.,  511. 
Thompson,  J.  Q.,  347. 
Tracy,  H.  W.,  223. 
Tremaine,  Lyman,  277. 
Trumbull,  Lyman,  244- 

UNDERWOOD,  THOS.,  329,  505,  512. 

Upson,  Charles,  266. 

U.  S.  Christian  Commission,  279. 

Ussher,  Dr.,  446. 

Utah  Territory,  76,  113,.  116-7,  126, 

258-9,  472-3- 
Utica(N.  Y.)  Herald,  160,  418,  521. 


VALLANDIGHAM,  C.   L.,  204,  207, 

209. 

Valparaiso  (Ind.)  Messenger,  450. 
Valparaiso  (Ind.)  Republic,  285. 
Valparaiso  (Ind.)  Vidette,  451. 
Van  Wyck,  C.  H.,  483. 
Vermont  Republican,  94. 
Via  Crucis,  A.,  431-7. 

WADE,  A.  B.,  Speech,  290-1. 
Wade,  B.  F.,  321,  323,  332. 
Wade,  Ellen  W.,  326-7,  329. 
Walker,  John  C.,  128-33. 
Walker,  R.  J.,  114-15. 
War,  The  Civil,  176,  184,  187,  194, 

198-200,  207,  237,  244,  246. 
Warsaw  (Ind.)  Union,  450. 
Washburne,  E.  B,,   132,  211,  219, 

221,  224,  244,  333,  406-7- 
Washington  Chronicle,  286. 
Webster,  Daniel,  49,  66,  68-9. 
Weed,  Thurlow,  148,  472. 
Welsh,  John,  412. 
West,  The  Far,  156-7. 
West  Virginia  admitted,  202. 
Wildman,  Grand-Master,  504. 
Wilmot  Proviso,  50-1. 
Wilkeson,  Samuel,  219, 
Williamson,  J.  Brainerd,  255. 
Williamson,  Rev.  N.  D.,  505. 
Wilson,  Henry,  34,  78-80,  321,  373, 

378,  460. 

Wilson,  James  F.,  219,  287. 
Wilson,  Rev.  J,  H.,  509. 
Wilson  Committee,  394~5»  4°4- 
Winamac  (Ind.)  Republican,  451. 
Windor%  Wm.,  219,  355,  428,  443. 
Winfield,  Charles  H.,  299. 
Wood,  Fernando,  224-5. 
Wheeler,  Alfred,  81,  112,  250. 
White,  W.  J.  P.,  416. 

YATES,  RICHARD,  204.. 
Yonkers  (N.  Y.)  Statesman,  313. 
Young,  Brigham,  258-9. 


3  2106  00060  1168 


